At least 12 people have been killed and dozens of others injured in Russian strikes across Ukraine, according to Ukrainian authorities, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy commemorated at least 707 children killed by Russia during the two countries’ more than four-year-long war.
At least five people were killed and 11 others injured in Russian bomb and drone attacks on eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the National Police of Ukraine’s press service said on Thursday.
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“Seven settlements were under fire: the cities of Dobropillya, Druzhkivka, Kramatorsk, Mykolaivka, Sloviansk, the village of Oleksiyevo-Druzhkivka, and the village of Kuritsyne. 42 civilian objects were destroyed, including 16 residential buildings,” the press service said in a message on Telegram.
The damage to civilian infrastructure was extensive, read the message, with at least 14 apartment buildings and 11 cars damaged as well as “a medical institution … an evacuation vehicle and an ambulance” also destroyed.
The next deadliest Russian attack took place in northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. At least three people were killed and 21 others were injured in Russian missile and drone attacks in the region, according to Governor Oleh Syniehubov.
Also in northeastern Ukraine, at least two people were killed and four others injured in a Russian attack on the village of Yampil, in the Shostka district, according to Oleg Hrygorov, the head of the Sumy regional military administration.
“The enemy attacked the central part of the Yampil community … two people died as a result of the attack … Four injured women were also taken to hospital. They are being provided with the necessary medical assistance,” Hrygorov wrote on Telegram.
At least one person was killed and five others injured in Russian shelling in central Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, said Oleksandr Ganzha, head of the region’s military administration.
“In the Nikopol region, the Nikopol, Marhanetska, Chervonogryhorivska, Pokrovska and Myrivska communities were under attack,” wrote Ganzha on Telegram, adding that the injured were in hospital receiving treatment.
Ganzha said that the Russian shelling caused extensive damage to civilian infrastructure, with fires breaking out in Slobozhanske and Petrykivska.
“The fire that occurred in the building of a logistics company was extinguished,” he added.
Lastly, one person was killed by Russian shelling on the Komyshany settlement in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the local military administration.
Over 707 children killed
Russia’s latest attacks across Ukraine came as Zelenskyy commemorated International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression by remembering the children killed over the course of Russia’s all-out war on Ukraine, which began in February 2022.
“This day is about the most painful episodes of the war, about the greatest injustice and the evil Russia inflicts when the most vulnerable and the most innocent are killed. Children,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post on social media.
At least 707 Ukrainian children have been killed, said Zelenskyy, adding that “there are also thousands of children whom Russia has wounded, abducted, and thousands of children whose fate remains unknown”.
“Eternal memory to every child who was killed. It is our enduring duty to remember, to protect our children, and to do everything possible to ensure that the evil Russia has brought is punished.”
Later on Thursday, the Kremlin said that Zelenskyy is welcome to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow “any time”, after the Ukrainian president called to set a date for a face-to-face meeting between the pair to end the war.
“Zelenskyy can come at any time to Moscow,” state media quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying, adding that Putin had not yet been shown Zelenskyy’s letter.
Latest Ukrainian attacks
In Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine, at least one person was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on Luhansk, according to the Moscow-appointed regional governor, Leonid Pasechnik.
“In the Troitsky Municipal District, an enemy drone struck a civilian vehicle. Unfortunately, the driver was unable to escape and died at the scene from his injuries,” Pasechnik wrote on the Makh channel.
Pasechnik said that the Ukrainian army also hit a commuter train in the Novoaidar Municipal District, adding that none of the 13 passengers on board were injured.
At least one person was killed and three others injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on a commuter train in the Russia-annexed Crimea, according to Sergei Aksyonov, Moscow-backed head of the Ukrainian peninsula.
Later on Thursday, Aksyonov said that three people were killed and seven others injured in a Ukrainian attack on non-residential buildings in Crimea’s Simferopol city.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had taken control of the village of Komsomolskoye, in southeast Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region.
In a statement, the ministry said it had launched three assaults on the Ukrainian army, resulting in losses of “up to 430 servicemen, four armoured combat vehicles, eight cars, and a counter-battery radar station”.
The assault came as Putin said the country must strengthen its air defences, a day after Ukrainian drones struck an oil complex and naval base in St Petersburg, Russia.
“Russia has an air defence system. Yes, we must improve it. Yes, we must strengthen it. And we will do so,” Putin said during a meeting with foreign journalists in St Petersburg.
