Four killed as Russia steps up attacks on Ukrainian border regions

According to local authorities, a missile attack on the northern region of Sumy killed one person, injuring at least 16 more, including three children

Kyiv: Russia has launched attacks on northern, eastern and southern Ukraine, killing at least four people and injuring 37, Ukrainian military and local authorities said.

Overnight attacks targeted Ukraine’s frontline regions of Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Donetsk, Ukraine’s Air Force said on Sunday on the Telegram messaging app. Russia has been pummelling Ukrainian border regions with strikes, and Kyiv said its surprise incursion earlier this month into Russia’s Kursk region aimed to hinder Moscow’s ability to stage such attacks.

---

A missile attack on the northern region of Sumy killed one person, injuring at least 16 more, including three children, local authorities said on Telegram. Oleh Sinehubov, Governor of the Kharkiv region in the east, posted that at least 13 people were injured in the Russian attacks, including a four-year-old child. Ihor Terekhov, mayor of Kharkiv city, said a gas pipeline was damaged in the city and at least two houses were destroyed and 10 damaged.

The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia launched nine attack drones, with Ukraine’s air defence systems destroying eight of them over the Mykolaiv region. “Most of the missiles did not reach their targets,” the Air Force said, adding that Russia launched an Iskander-M ballistic missile, an Iskander-K cruise missile and six guided air missiles.

It did not specify how many were destroyed. Russian attacks continued throughout the day in the southern region of Kherson, killing one person and injuring six more, according to Roman Mrochko, head of Kherson city’s military administration. Regional prosecutors in Sumy said an aerial bomb attack on Sunday afternoon struck a residential neighbourhood in the Svesa village, killing two people and injuring two more.

There was no immediate comment from Russia. Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia launched with a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.