Kyiv/Moscow, July 3 (SANA) Russia and Ukraine exchanged overnight attacks on Friday, with strikes hitting civilian areas and infrastructure in both countries and leaving several people dead and injured, according to officials.
Reuters quoted Ukrainian officials as saying that four people were killed and 10 others injured in Russian attacks overnight.
Oleh Hryhorov, head of the military administration in Ukraine’s Sumy region, said two women, an elderly man and a child under the age of two were killed after a Russian drone struck a house. Three other people were injured.
Ukraine‘s state news agency quoted Tymur Tkachenko, head of the military administration in Kryvyi Rih, as saying Russia launched more than 10 strikes using drones, missiles and artillery, targeting a factory, schools, a shop and a residential building. The attacks injured 10 people and caused extensive infrastructure damage.
The attacks came hours after Ukraine observed a national day of mourning for the victims of Russian strikes on Kyiv on Thursday that killed at least 30 people in one of the deadliest attacks on the capital this year.
Meanwhile, Russian authorities said a Ukrainian missile attack on the city of Belgorod sparked a large fire at an industrial facility, killing one woman and damaging energy infrastructure. The attack also disrupted water and gas supplies.
Yegor Kovalchuk, acting governor of Russia‘s Bryansk region, said a man was killed in a village near the Ukrainian border in an explosive drone strike.
Smolensk Governor Vasily Anokhin said a drone attack also caused a fire at an industrial site in western Russia, although no casualties were reported.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 155 Ukrainian drones overnight.
The Russian Health Ministry said nine people, including three in serious condition, were injured in a Ukrainian airstrike targeting a minibus in Lysychansk in the Luhansk region on Thursday.
Russia’s Sever Group of Forces also said its drone units destroyed a self-propelled 2S1 Gvozdika howitzer and five Ukrainian firing positions in the Kharkiv and Sumy regions.
The latest exchanges followed Russia’s large-scale missile and drone attack on Kyiv early Thursday, after which Ukraine vowed retaliation while Moscow said it would continue its military operations.
F.J./ABD
