Kiev, June 23:
A Russian drone strike on the city of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine killed three members of the same family, including a 13-year-old boy and his father, and wounded another two, a regional official said Monday.
Russia has pounded civilian areas of Ukraine with drones and missiles since it launched its all-out invasion of its neighbour more than four years ago, and a United Nations tally says more than 16,000 civilians have died in the war.
US-led peace efforts have failed to stop the fighting.
The Sumy attack hit a home and killed a 36-year-old man, his 13-year-old son and a 73-year-old woman who was the mother of the man’s partner, according to Oleh Hryhorov, the head of the regional military administration. The man’s partner and 10-year-old son were wounded, he said.
The number of civilian casualties in Russian attacks has jumped recently, according to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, as Moscow’s forces struggle to gain momentum on the battlefield.
At least 274 civilians were killed and 1,763 injured in Ukraine in May — the highest monthly total of civilian casualties since April 2022, it said earlier this month. Most casualties are in cities far from the front line, it said.
A Russian nighttime drone strike also killed a woman and wounded three people, including an 11-year-old boy, in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, regional head Ivan Fedorov said.
In total, Russia launched 88 long-range attack drones and one ballistic missile overnight, Ukraine’s air force said, with air defences shooting down or jamming 79 of the drones.
Ukraine, meanwhile, fired many more drones toward Russia and territories it controls, according to the Russian Defence Ministry, as Kyiv sustained its long-range campaign against oil facilities, military transport and infrastructure.
The Russian Defence Ministry said Monday its forces intercepted 301 Ukrainian drones during the night over multiple Russian regions, the illegally annexed Crimea peninsula, the Azov Sea and the Black Sea.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 84 Ukrainian drones targeting the Russian capital were shot down.
He didn’t say whether the attack caused any damage, but all four Moscow airports temporarily halted flights in the wake of the attack.