Russia’s attacks on Ukraine cause fatalities on second day

Ukrainian firefighters put out a fire following an airstrike in the Odessa region during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on August 26, 2024. | Photo: Oleksandr GIMANOV / AFP

KIEV, Ukraine — Russia launched a barrage of attack drones and missiles into Ukraine for a second night, killing at least five people, authorities said Tuesday.

Hours after the artillery attack, Ukraine claimed new progress in its surprise assault on Russia’s Kursk border region, saying it had captured nearly 600 Russian soldiers in the past three weeks.

President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on social media: “Crimes against humanity cannot go unpunished.” Four people were killed and 16 injured on Tuesday. Authorities said a woman later died in hospital.

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AFP journalists in the capital, Kiev, heard air raid sirens echoing over the city throughout the night, as well as explosions, possibly from air defence systems.

Monday’s attack was one of Moscow’s largest assaults on Ukraine, prompting Kiev to seek permission from its allies to strike deep into the Russian heartland using Western-supplied weapons.

Zelensky said in Kiev that Ukraine had used Western-supplied F-16 fighter jets to counter Russia’s onslaught and that Ukraine had successfully test-fired a domestically produced ballistic missile.

Repeat hotel attack

A missile hit a hotel in the Zaporizhia region of southeastern Ukraine, killing three people, while two were killed in the central city of Krivoryg, local authorities said.

The hotel strike came days after a Reuters team was hit by a missile at a hotel in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, killing a security consultant working for Reuters.

Russia’s attack on Monday caused widespread power outages and drew condemnation from Ukraine’s European allies and the United States.

Russia said the attack targeted infrastructure linked to the Ukrainian military, and NATO member Poland said its airspace was violated in the attack, possibly by a drone.

Since its invasion in February 2022, Russia has repeatedly launched large-scale drone and missile attacks on Ukraine, including punitive strikes on energy facilities.

Ukraine’s power grid operator said on Tuesday it would implement emergency blackouts throughout the day to relieve pressure on the grid after attacks caused damage to the country’s energy infrastructure.

Three other civilians were killed in the attacks in the Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv and Kherson regions, local Ukrainian authorities said.

‘Pushing boundaries’

Ukrainian troops have been waging an offensive in Kursk, a surprise operation that allowed Kiev to capture large swathes of territory in three weeks.

The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Kursk and Ukraine, said on Tuesday he was aware of reports that Ukrainian troops had attempted to cross the border.

“There are reports that the enemy is trying to break through the border of the Belgorod region,” Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

“The Russian Defense Ministry said the situation on the border remains difficult but under control,” he said on social media.

Zelenskiy said late on Monday that Ukraine’s cross-border incursion on August 6 was partly intended to “make up” for Kiev’s inability to penetrate deep into Russian territory.

He has been calling on Ukraine’s allies to allow his forces to strike targets inside Russia using Western-supplied weapons to deter more air strikes.

Ukrainian Army Chief Oleksandr Serskiy said his forces had recently made new advances in Kursk and now controlled 100 towns and villages within 1,294 square kilometers (nearly 500 square miles).

He also claimed that Russian forces had redeployed some 30,000 troops to help defend against the Kursk invasion and that Ukraine had captured 594 prisoners during the invasion — the first time Kiev had provided an accurate figure.

Rafael Grossi, head of the UN nuclear watchdog, visited the Kursk nuclear power plant, about 50 kilometres from the fighting, on Tuesday and warned that its distance from the site of the fighting was “extremely serious”.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) urged Russia and Ukraine to exercise “maximum restraint” to avoid nuclear accidents at nuclear power plants.

Moscow has been making steady progress in Ukraine despite Kiev’s incursions into its territory, and said on Tuesday its troops had captured the village of Orlivka near the strategic railway hub of Pokrovsk.

Zelenskiy said late on Monday that defending Pokrovsk was “difficult” and that Ukraine was strengthening its positions there as Russian troops advance.

This week, AFP journalists saw civilians being evacuated by train from Pokrovsk, a city of about 60,000 people.

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