Three dead as Russia and Ukraine trade strikes across border
Officials on both sides reported deaths and injuries as Ukraine targeted Russian regions and Russia struck Ukrainian border areas.
By Lucas Ferreira · Science & Environment Writer
3 min read
Three people were killed as Russia and Ukraine reported new cross-border attacks, officials on both sides said Friday. The strikes underscored the widening reach of the war, with drones and artillery hitting border communities, industrial sites and transport links.
In Russia’s Bryansk region, Acting Governor Egor Kovalchuk said on Telegram that two civilians were killed and two others were wounded when Ukrainian artillery hit the settlement of Suzemka. Bryansk borders Ukraine and has repeatedly reported attacks during the war.
Russia’s central Tatarstan region also came under drone attack, regional head Rustam Minnikhanov said on Telegram. He said a drone struck an apartment building and injured three people, while industrial facilities were also hit.
Minnikhanov said production work had not stopped, but he did not name the facilities that were struck. Al Jazeera reported that Tatarstan is home to major oil-processing and petrochemical sites.
In the Samara region, Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said the city of Togliatti was targeted overnight by drones. Togliatti, on the Volga River about 800km southeast of Moscow, is home to Avtovaz, Russia’s largest carmaker, according to Al Jazeera.
Casualties reported in Ukraine
Ukraine also reported casualties from Russian attacks. Oleksandr Pertsovkyi, head of Ukrainian Railways, said a 44-year-old woman who worked as a rail station operator died while heading to a shelter during a drone strike in the Sumy border region.
Pertsovkyi said another railway worker, a station attendant, was wounded in the same attack. Officials also reported three people wounded in separate attacks on Ukraine’s southern Mykolaiv region.
Al Jazeera’s Audrey MacAlpine, reporting from Kyiv, said Ukraine describes some of its mid-range strikes on Russian targets as a “logistics lockdown.” She said the term refers to attacks more than 30km from the front line using long-range drones and, at times, heavy weapons against sites such as oil refineries, bridges, roads and logistics routes.
MacAlpine said Kyiv has also used the phrase “long-range sanctions” for attacks on Russia’s oil industry, a campaign she said has grown in recent months. She also said Russia has continued to threaten large-scale attacks and that ballistic missiles remain a major weakness for Ukraine’s air defenses, including in Kyiv.
Fuel pressure in Crimea
Al Jazeera, citing Reuters, reported that fuel stations in Russian-held Crimea ran out of petrol on Thursday after Ukraine stepped up attacks on supply lines to the peninsula. Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
A witness in Sevastopol told Reuters that most local petrol stations had no fuel and that supplies were struggling under a rationing system imposed in recent weeks. Another witness in Yevpatoriya told Reuters there was a long line outside the only open petrol station there.
Local authorities in Crimea have introduced fuel rationing, and some food items were also running short, according to Al Jazeera. Apart from Russian-held Crimea, only two Siberian regions have officially confirmed fuel shortages, while most other Russian regions have said the situation is under control and blamed some disruptions on panic buying. Moscow has denied any problems with fuel supplies.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.