At least 19 people, including children, were injured in Russian attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian regions Thursday as Ukraine reported strikes on a Russian oil refinery and military airfield and a separate drone attack killed the captain of a civilian vessel in the Black Sea.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
A large Russian missile and drone attack struck Kyiv and other areas of Ukraine overnight and into Thursday, injuring at least 19 people, including children, as both countries continued long-range attacks despite renewed U.S. efforts to halt strikes against energy infrastructure.
The Kyiv City Military Administration reported damage at more than 10 locations across the capital. In the wider Kyiv region, authorities counted 33 damaged sites. A 10-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy were among those injured, according to the administration.
Ukraine’s air force said it destroyed or suppressed 131 aerial targets during the overnight assault. The Russian attack included ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, drones and decoys and focused heavily on the Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia and Odesa regions.
Odesa sustained extensive residential damage. Seven people, including two children, were injured, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service. Apartments on the 14th through 16th floors of a residential building were damaged, while a private home was destroyed and other properties were damaged.
The attacks extended beyond land targets. A Russian drone struck a civilian vessel flying the Tanzanian flag in the Black Sea on Thursday, killing the captain and injuring three crew members, according to Oleh Kiper, head of the Odesa region. The vessel’s superstructure and deck were damaged. Kiper accused Russia of deliberately attacking Ukrainian ports and civilian merchant vessels.
Ukraine simultaneously carried out strikes inside Russia.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces struck the Yaroslavl Oil Refinery in an operation involving Ukraine’s Security Service, special operations forces, military intelligence and Foreign Intelligence Service. A fire caused by the attack was later extinguished, according to regional authorities.
Zelenskyy also said Ukraine’s Security Service struck a military airfield in Russia’s Rostov region. He said an An-12 aircraft, two An-26 aircraft and three helicopters were damaged in the attack.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces had struck Ukrainian metallurgical and electronics plants, military-industrial facilities and energy and transportation infrastructure. Moscow also said three bulk carriers and a ferry carrying supplies for the Ukrainian military were struck at the port of Chornomorsk.
The new attacks came as diplomatic efforts to end Russia’s full-scale invasion remain stalled more than 4½ years after Moscow launched the war in February 2022. Territorial control in eastern Ukraine remains among the major unresolved issues, while Kyiv is also seeking security guarantees from international partners as part of any settlement. Multiple rounds of U.S.-brokered negotiations have so far failed to produce a broader agreement.
The continued strikes also underscore disagreement over whether Moscow and Kyiv have agreed to stop targeting each other’s energy systems.
President Donald Trump said Monday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to cease attacks against one another’s energy infrastructure. Zelenskyy disputed that characterization, saying Ukraine had discussed a possible energy truce during a meeting in Kyiv with Trump representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner but had not entered an unconditional agreement.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine would support such a ceasefire if Russia first stopped attacking Ukrainian energy infrastructure and if Washington could establish that Moscow was genuinely prepared to comply with an agreement. Russia and Ukraine have continued attacking energy targets since Trump announced the proposed arrangement.
The dispute comes as both countries have suffered significant effects from attacks on energy infrastructure. Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukraine’s power and fuel systems during the war, while Ukraine has intensified long-range attacks against Russian oil refineries and other industrial facilities.
Thursday also brought another exchange involving the war dead.
Ukraine received the bodies of 252 people as part of ongoing exchanges with Russia, according to the Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Russia said the remains were those of Ukrainian citizens, including military personnel. Ukrainian law enforcement authorities and forensic specialists are expected to examine the remains and work to establish their identities.
The exchange occurred as missile, drone and energy-infrastructure attacks continued on both sides despite the latest diplomatic effort to establish at least a limited ceasefire.
Original article
Comments