At least 14 people were killed and 37 injured, including five children, in Russian missiles and drone attacks against the eastern city of Ukrainian Dobropillia and a colony in the Kharkiv region overnight, the Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior announced on Saturday.
Russian forces attacked Dobropillia with ballistic missiles, several rockets and drones, causing damage to eight several floors and 30 vehicles, according to the ministry. The assault resulted in the death of 11 people, including five children, and left 30 more injured.
The ministry also pointed out that three civilians had been killed and seven injured in a separate drone attack on the Kharkiv region in the northeast.
“Such strikes show that Russia’s goals have not changed. Therefore, it is crucial to continue to do our best to protect lives, strengthen our air defenses and increase sanctions against Russia. Everything helps the finance of war,” said President Volodyr Zelenskyy on Facebook.
On Friday, Russian forces damaged the Ukrainian energy and gas infrastructure during its first major missile attack since the United States has taken an intelligence break with Ukraine, piling up from the pressure on kyiv while the American president Donald Trump is looking for the war quickly.
The break of military aid and American intelligence could undermine the air defenses of Ukraine while it is weak on advanced missiles and fights to effectively follow the attacks, according to military analysts.
Dobropillia, which houses around 28,000 people before the war, is in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, 22 kilometers from the first line north of the Pokrovsk hub, which Russian troops have been attacking for weeks.
In the midst of American efforts to sit kyiv and Moscow at the negotiating table, the parties continue to engage in active hostilities in order to obtain an advantage.
A reservoir of the Kirishi oil refinery in Surgutneftegaz, one of the largest in Russia, was damaged by the decline in debris during a major Ukrainian drone attack, local officials said.
The Russian forces, for their part, have intensified in recent weeks to eject the Ukrainian troops from Kursk, when the kyiv forces have staged an incursion of lightning on the border and seized a band of Russian territory last August.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday that its troops took over three villages in the Kursk region of the Ukrainian forces.
Reuters could not independently confirm the report on the battlefield.
