Russia and Ukraine trade long-range strikes as civilians killed on both sides

Elena Teslova

Russia and Ukraine continued on Thursday long-range attacks far from the front lines, resulting in civilian casualties.

The Ukrainian General Staff said 13 people were killed in Russia’s overnight strike, while Russian officials reported four civilian deaths in Ukrainian drone attacks.

Nizhny Novgorod region Governor Gleb Nikitin said one person was killed and four injured after drone debris caused damage to an industrial site and residential buildings. He added that air defence systems had intercepted 30 drones.

In the Belgorod region, local authorities said one man was killed and his wife injured when a drone struck a private house in the village of Malakeyevo.

The Russian-installed governor of the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, said two employees of an energy company were killed during repair work in a drone strike.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces used long-range precision weapons launched from the air, sea and land, as well as drones, to strike defence industry enterprises and fuel and energy facilities in Kyiv and the surrounding region.

Military airfield infrastructure in the Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Cherkasy, Chernihiv and Kyiv regions was also targeted, it said.

According to the ministry, the strikes were carried out in response to Ukrainian “terrorist attacks” on civilian infrastructure in Russia.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s General Staff said Ukrainian forces struck another Russia’s oil refinery, the Lukoil Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez oil refinery in the town of Kstovo in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region.

Ukraine also said it struck a drone storage site in the Russian-controlled part of the Zaporizhzhia region, a railway bridge near Stanytsia Luhanska, and a Russian command post in the Kharkiv region.

Independent verification of claims by both sides is challenging due to the ongoing conflict.