Russian strikes kill three in Ukraine after Moscow drone attack
Ukrainian officials said Russian attacks killed three people, while the Kremlin said it would keep striking after a large drone assault on Moscow.
By James Whitfield · Staff Writer
3 min read
Russian attacks across Ukraine killed three people on Friday, including an eight-year-old girl, Ukrainian officials said, adding to a week of intensifying cross-border strikes. The Kremlin said Russia would keep hitting Ukraine after Russian officials reported that a large Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow a day earlier killed another eight-year-old child and set fire to an oil refinery.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 90 drones between late Thursday and early Friday. Oleksandr Ganzha, governor of the central Dnipropetrovsk region, said an eight-year-old girl was killed and another person was wounded in Pavlohrad after a morning attack.
Authorities in Ukraine said other Russian strikes killed one person in the southern Odesa region and one person in the eastern city of Kramatorsk. Ukraine also said Russian drone attacks late Thursday killed one person and injured five others on civilian ships in the Black Sea.
The latest attacks came as both countries have expanded strikes on each other in recent weeks. United States-led efforts to end the war, now in its fifth year, remain effectively stalled.
Kremlin says strikes will continue
Andrei Vorobyov, governor of the Moscow region, said Friday that an eight-year-old girl was killed in the Ukrainian drone attack that hit Moscow and surrounding areas on Thursday. Vorobyov said the girl was at home with her grandmother at the time, and that the grandmother was not injured.
Russian officials described the assault as Ukraine’s largest drone attack on Moscow. The attack involved hundreds of drones and started a fire at a large oil refinery in southeastern Moscow for the second time in three days, according to Russian officials.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged the drone strikes during a briefing with journalists on Friday. He said Russian authorities were taking steps to limit the damage and said Moscow’s air defenses were working well, according to Russian news agencies.
Peskov said Russia’s strikes on Ukraine would continue. Asked whether President Vladimir Putin had viewed footage of the refinery fire, Peskov told reporters to look at images from Ukrainian cities struck by Russian forces.
Ukraine says its attacks inside Russia are justified responses to Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians.
Ukraine reports strikes in Crimea
Ukraine’s military said Friday that it had struck railway bridges in Russian-held Crimea. The Ukrainian general staff said on Telegram that the bridges were in the areas of Rozdolne and Vladyslavivka.
According to Ukraine’s general staff, Russian forces used the bridges to move troops and supplies. Ukraine has increased attacks in Russian-occupied areas of southern Ukraine and Crimea in an effort to disrupt Russian logistics, according to Ukrainian officials.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.