Russia-Ukraine strikes leave civilians dead as attacks intensify on both sides
At least two people were killed in overnight Russian missile and drone strikes across Ukraine, while a Ukrainian drone attack in Russia's Krasnodar region left two people dead, officials said Saturday.
In Kyiv, a Russian ballistic missile strike on railway infrastructure killed one person and injured another, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces had targeted a locomotive depot in the Ukrainian capital.
Russian drone strikes also killed one person in a village in the Zaporizhzhia region, officials said. Three others were injured when a minibus came under attack in the regional capital, also named Zaporizhzhia, Zelenskyy said.
In Russia, authorities in the southern Krasnodar region said two children were killed and two adults injured in a Ukrainian drone strike.
The latest attacks came a day after a major Russian drone strike on a shopping centre in Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy's hometown.
The death toll from Friday's attack rose to 16 on Saturday, while nine people remained missing, Dnipropetrovsk regional head Oleksandr Hanzha said. Another 130 people were injured.
Zelenskyy had described the Kryvyi Rih attack as a "double-tap" strike, alleging that a second wave of drones hit the area while rescue workers were responding to the first attack.
The fire at the shopping centre, which spread across around 9,000 square metres, was later brought under control as rescue teams continued searching the site.
Russian attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities have intensified in recent weeks. Ukrainian officials have repeatedly warned about shortages of US-made Patriot air defence interceptors, which are capable of intercepting Russia's ballistic missiles.
At the same time, Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks inside Russia, targeting oil and industrial facilities.
Russia's Astra news outlet reported that a Ukrainian drone strike set an oil refinery in the Samara region on fire. Local authorities confirmed damage at an industrial facility and a logistics centre belonging to Ozon, without specifying the cause.
The latest exchange of attacks comes amid a wider escalation in the nearly four-and-a-half-year Russia-Ukraine war, with civilian areas continuing to bear the brunt of the strikes.
(With inputs from PTI)
