KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Officials said four people were killed in Russian artillery fire on Ukraine on Saturday after the two countries exchanged drone attacks, one of which set a Russian oil depot ablaze.
Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said two people were killed and two wounded in an attack near the regional capital in Ukraine’s partly occupied Kherson region. Two more people were killed and 22 wounded in the Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine on Saturday afternoon, Governor Oleh Shnievbov said.
An oil depot in the Tsimlyansky district, deep in Russia’s southwestern Rostov region, was set ablaze in a Ukrainian drone attack early on Saturday, the latest long-range offensive by Kiev’s forces into the border region.
Ukraine in recent months Strengthen air attacks On Russian soil, they are targeting refineries and oil terminals in an attempt to slow down the Kremlin’s war machine as Moscow’s forces push hard along the front line in eastern Ukraine, where they are running low on men and ammunition in the third year of the war. Leaving the defense vulnerable.
Rostov Oblast Governor Vasily Golubev said the drone strike caused a 200-square-meter (2,100-square-foot) fire but caused no casualties. Golubev said the blaze was extinguished about five hours after he reported it on the Telegram messaging app.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that in addition to intercepting two drones over Rostov Region, Russian air defense systems had destroyed two more drones over the Kursk and Belgorod Regions in the country’s west during the night.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Air Force said its air defenses had intercepted four of five drones launched by Russia overnight, with the fifth headed towards Belarus, air force commander Mykola Oreshchuk said.
Meanwhile, shelling in the Russian town of Shevekino in Belgorod Oblast, which borders Ukraine, wounded eight people, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Saturday.
Vadim Filashkin, the Ukrainian governor of the partially occupied eastern Donetsk region, said six people were killed and 22 wounded in Friday’s Russian attack.
The Kremlin also warned on Saturday that the deployment of U.S. missiles in Germany could expose European capitals to Russian missile targets.
The United States and Germany announced on Wednesday that they would begin a “phased deployment” of long-range missiles to Germany in 2026, including Tomahawk, SM-6 and hypersonic missiles.
“We have sufficient capabilities to contain these missiles, but the potential victims are the capitals of these countries,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Russian state television.
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Morton reported from London.
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