Ukrainian forces launched another major drone swarm into Russia on Sunday, killing at least six people, according to reports from The Associated Press and Russian media.
According to Alexander Shuvayev, the acting governor of Russia’s Belgorod Oblast, one drone hit near a playground, killing a 13-year-old girl and wounding a seven-year-old and a nine-year-old. “I share the grief of this loss with the family. Of course, no words can express the pain of losing a child,” he wrote on Telegram.
The AP report said that two civilians were killed by a Ukrainian drone attack that hit an apartment building in the Saratov Oblast, and three civilians were killed when drones hit Russia’s Udmurt Republic. The Russian Defense Ministry said that its forces downed 635 drones over multiple Russian regions and the Black and Azov Seas.
One of the attacks hit a warehouse in the Samara Oblast that belongs to Wildberries, a Russian online retailer that has become a frequent target of Ukrainian drones in recent weeks. The region’s governor said a fire broke out at the facility, but there were no casualties.
The Ukrainian attacks came a day after Russian missiles pounded the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, killing at least nine civilians, according to local officials. Two days before that, Russian strikes hit targets across Ukraine, killing nine, including three children.
Russian strikes continued to hit Ukraine on Sunday, and according to the AP, one person was killed by a Russian bombing of the city of Zaporizhzhia, and another was killed by a Russian attack in Kharkiv.
Civilian casualties have spiked in the fifth year of the conflict as Ukraine has dramatically ramped up its US-backed long-range drone attacks in Russia and Moscow has responded by ramping up missile strikes on Ukrainian cities. While Ukraine has been able to hit targets deep inside Russia and disrupt the country’s oil industry, Russian forces continue to have the momentum on the front lines, where they continue to slowly take territory.
