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Ukraine fired hundreds of drones towards Russia on Monday, targeting export and energy facilities as it continues its campaign to put pressure on Russia’s war capabilities.
“Last night, our long-range sanctions were effective in the Rostov region. An export terminal approximately 250 kilometres from the front line was hit,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on Facebook.
“Deep strikes also targeted oil facilities in the Yaroslavl region and the Udmurt Republic, which is 1,300 kilometres from Ukraine’s state border,” he added.
Russian officials said five people were killed in the strikes on Rostov, including a child. The attack also set buildings ablaze, among them an apartment block and warehouses, officials added.
In the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, Ukrainian drones wounded 12 people including two children and set fire to an apartment building, regional authorities said.
Ukraine has escalated its retaliatory strikes on Russia in recent months, partly to pressure Moscow to the negotiating table after nearly four-and-a-half years of war.
While Kyiv has hit Russian towns as far as the Urals and Siberia, it has mostly damaged energy infrastructure, with deaths so deep into Russia rare.
Ukrainian drones have also struck 14 energy facilities in Russian-occupied Crimea over the past three days, according to Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces.
The sustained Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure have caused significant power outages, fuel shortages and disrupted ordinary life more than at any point during Moscow’s over four-year offensive.
Ukraine says its retaliatory strikes aim to weaken Moscow’s war machine and to force the Kremlin to negotiate an end to the fighting.
Nine killed in Russian strikes on Ukraine
Meanwhile, Russian strikes across Ukraine killed at least nine people over the past day, regional authorities reported.
Two people were killed and 13 others injured in the Zaporizhzhia region, where Russian forces targeted 45 settlements near the frontline.
In Kharkiv, a 40-year-old woman was killed and two people, including a child, were killed in a rare daytime attack that hit a supermarket in Chernihiv.
According to the country’s air force, Russia attacked Ukraine overnight with 147 long-range strike drones.
The report said that 123 drones were intercepted or jammed, while 21 drones inflicted damages at 7 locations.
Last month was the deadliest for civilians in Ukraine since April 2022, as Moscow ramped up its long-range strikes on towns and cities across Ukraine, according to the United Nations.
Additional sources • AFP