12 killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine

KIEV

Russian attacks across eastern Ukraine killed at least 11 people Saturday, while rescuers in the city of Dnipro dug through rubble after a Russian strike ripped through a nine-story residential building, leaving one dead, officials said.

The attacks came as Russia continues to stretch out Ukrainian forces in several areas along the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front. Moscow has stepped up airstrikes in a bid to drain Ukraine’s resources, often targeting energy facilities and other vital infrastructure.

The shelling of the front-line village of Niu-York in the Donetsk region also wounded five people, Gov. Vadym Filashkin said. He said that Russian forces had shelled populated areas 13 times over the past 24 hours.

A further seven people were killed Saturday afternoon in Russian shelling on the town of Vilniansk, including two children, Gov. Ivan Fedorov said. Ten other people were wounded, while infrastructure was also damaged, he wrote on social media.

Meanwhile, in Dnipro, at least one person died and 12 were wounded, including a 7-month-old girl, after a Russian strike destroyed the top four floors of the apartment building on Friday evening, regional head Serhii Lysak said. Rescuers confirmed that several residents remained missing.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Dnipro attack was a reminder to Ukraine’s allies that the country needed more air defense systems. The Ukrainian air force said Saturday that it had downed 10 Russian drones overnight.

“This is why we constantly remind all of our partners: only a sufficient amount of high-quality air defense systems, only a sufficient amount of determination from the world at large can stop Russian terror,” he said.

Russian officials also reported Ukrainian attacks, with a drone strike killing five people in Russia’s Kursk region, local officials said Saturday.

A Ukrainian drone strike killed at least five people in Russia’s Kursk region, local officials said Saturday. Two children were among the victims of the attack in the village of Gorodishche on the Russian-Ukrainian border, Gov. Alexey Smirnov said on social media.

In its morning statement, the Russian Defense Ministry said that six Ukrainian drones had been shot down overnight over the country’s Tver, Bryansk and Belgorod regions, as well as over the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014. It didn't give information on the reported strike in the Kursk region. The Ukrainian government also responded Saturday to a statement from the Belarusian military saying it had increased its forces along Ukraine’s northern border in response to what it described as security threats.

The announcement came after Belarus’ border agency claimed its troops downed a Ukrainian drone that had flown across the border to gather intelligence.

Kiev denied the accusations, which it described as Russian propaganda.

“The Russians’ task is simple — to draw more of our forces (to the Belarusian border), Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation said in a statement. “Any information about our activity in the border area is a lie.”

Belarus’ authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, has close ties with Russia and allowed Moscow to use his country’s territory to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.