Casualties Mount in Ukraine as Attacks Escalate: New Deaths and Injuries Reported

Deaths in Kherson, Injuries in Kharkiv

Subtitle: New Attacks in Southern and Eastern Ukraine Result in Casualties

In southern and eastern Ukraine, new attacks have occurred with fatalities and numerous injuries. Russia once again accuses Ukraine of drone attacks and reports the downing of the unmanned aerial vehicles.

Russia has reportedly launched attacks on cities in southern and eastern Ukraine, according to Ukrainian sources. Dozens of people were injured in an explosion in the city of Perwomajskyj in eastern Ukraine. At least 31 injured individuals have been registered, including several minors, said Oleh Synjehubow, the governor of the Kharkiv region, on Telegram. The affected residential area suffered damage to eight apartment buildings and five cars. Preliminary information suggests that it was a grenade impact. It should be noted that the town is over 100 kilometers away from the front line in the east and the Russian border to the north.

According to the local prosecutor's office, a man and a woman were killed in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson. The number of injured individuals was initially unclear.

Fighting Continues in Bachmut

In the northeastern city of Sumy, the death toll rose to three after a Russian drone attack on Monday. According to local reports, 21 people were injured when a multi-story residential building was hit.

According to the Ukrainian General Staff, heavy fighting continues in Bachmut, located in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian military has managed to repel several attacks amid intense enemy aircraft and artillery fire. These reports cannot be independently verified.

Drones Over Moscow

According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, Russian air defense forces have once again shot down drones over Moscow. Four drones were destroyed by Russian air defense, while another one was electronically disabled and crashed over the Odintsovo area, as stated by the ministry, according to the state news agency Tass. There were no fatalities or injuries reported.

The Ministry of Defense held Ukraine responsible for the drone attacks, referring to it as an "attempted terrorist attack by the Kiev regime." Moscow's mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, also wrote on his Telegram channel that Russian air defense had "repelled another attempted attack by Ukrainian drones."

Attacks have been increasing in Russia for weeks, mostly in the immediate border region with Ukraine. Following the alleged drone shootdown, flights from the Wnukowo Airport, located southwest of the Moscow city center, were diverted to other airports for approximately three hours due to security reasons. The Odintsovo area, where one of the drones crashed, is near Wnukowo. According to the Russian aviation authority, flight operations resumed at 8:00 Moscow time. One of the destroyed drones is said to have crashed at a military facility in the suburb of Kubinka, west of Wnukowo, according to rescue services cited by the state news agency Tass.

Putin Accuses the West of Illegitimate Sanctions

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West of conducting a "hybrid war with unprecedented illegitimate anti-Russian sanctions." Russia will resist "external pressure," said the Kremlin leader in his speech at the virtual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) chaired by India. For a long time, "external forces" have been trying to turn Ukraine into an "anti-Russia" state. Ukraine has been flooded with weapons for eight years.

The SCO organization, initially founded in 2001 for counterterrorism purposes, includes Russia, India, China, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.