Russia-Ukraine war live: Putin attacks 15 regions, targets energy supplies, kills 3

Evans was staying at the hotel with a six-member team covering the war in Ukraine when the incident occurred.

My colleagues Marusha Muzaffar Report:

Russia’s Saratov airport lifted flight restrictions today following reports of a Ukrainian drone strike that damaged residential areas and injured a woman.

During the attack on the Saratov regional airport, a Ukrainian drone was reportedly intercepted and destroyed by Russian air defenses.

The drone was reportedly targeting the airport but the air defense system managed to neutralize it before it caused significant damage, local authorities said.

However, debris from the destroyed drone caused damage to a residential area in Saratov and reportedly caused injuries.

Flight restrictions were implemented at the airport during the incident, but these were lifted later in the day after the situation was under control.

Russian forces launched a massive drone and missile attack on Ukraine in the early hours of Monday morning, reportedly killing at least three people and appearing to target energy infrastructure.

The attack, which began around midnight and lasted until after dawn, appeared to be the largest Russian assault on Ukraine in weeks.

The Ukrainian Air Force said that multiple groups of Russian drones were moving toward eastern, northern, southern and central regions of Ukraine and launching multiple cruise missiles and ballistic missiles.

Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said explosions were heard in the capital, Kiev, and electricity and water supplies were cut off in the city.

Another person was killed in the central Dnipropetrovsk region where multiple fires sparked by the attacks, said regional chief Sergei Lesak. He said one person had been rescued from the rubble.

One person was also killed in the partially occupied southeastern Zaporizhia oblast, regional chief Ivan Fedorov said. He said an infrastructure facility was hit and caught fire.

In the southern Nikolayev region, three people were injured, regional chief Vitaly King reported, urging residents to take advantage of the region’s “invulnerable points.”

In the remote Kiev region, one person was wounded in an attack that targeted unspecified infrastructure and homes, regional chief Ruslan Kravchenko said.

Ukraine’s private energy company DTEK announced an emergency blackout, saying in an online statement that “energy workers across the country are working around the clock to restore light to Ukrainians’ homes.”

A Ukrainian drone attempted to attack an oil refinery in the city of Yaroslavl, northeast of Moscow, this morning, regional governor Mikhail Yevlayev said via telegram.

He reported that the incident caused no casualties or property damage.

Meanwhile, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said via Telegram that a massive Russian airstrike on Monday caused power and water outages in parts of Kiev.

Ukraine’s largest private energy producer, DTEK, announced emergency power outages in response to the attack.

New explosions were reported near Kiev on Monday morning, appearing to be the sound of air defense systems responding to air strikes Reuters witness.

The explosion followed several previous waves of attacks and bombings.

Kiev and the rest of Ukraine were put on air raid alert as the Ukrainian air force warned of a possible large-scale Russian attack.

The US State Department has confirmed that an American citizen was injured in a Russian attack on a hotel in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, which also killed British security adviser Ryan Evans and injured two Reuters journalists.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned the American citizens in the hotel and said: “My condolences to the families and friends of the victims. This is a daily campaign of terror by Russia, and it continues because Russia has the capacity to continue.”

The identities of the injured Americans and others affected have not been released.

The Ukrainian military reported widespread air raid alerts across the country as Russia launched a massive missile and drone attack this morning following multiple waves of drone strikes overnight. Reuters report.

The Ukrainian air force noted the launch of several missiles and multiple drones, but no explosions were reported as of 05:00 GMT.

“Up to 10 drones were destroyed as they approached the city,” Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said on Telegram.

Despite the attack, no damage or casualties were reported and there has been no response from Russia.

Both countries deny targeting civilians and claim the attacks focus on critical infrastructure.

Ukraine has captured at least 247 Russian soldiers since invading Russia’s Kursk Oblast on August 6, according to a report The Washington Post Visual evidence analysis, including more than 130 photos and videos.

Some of the captured soldiers have claimed to be conscripts, the outlet reported, which has created political problems for Russian President Vladimir Putin because such soldiers are often young, poorly trained and have not been committed to combat.

“I haven’t seen a video of Russian soldiers surrendering en masse like this in a long time,” said Dara Massicotte, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Massicotte added: “Conscription to war undermines the social contract between Russian families and the government that has existed since 1999 under Putin.”

The videos cover various locations within a 22-kilometer radius in Russia, showing group images of captured soldiers, with some videos showing that at least 40 soldiers were captured near the Sudja border crossing.

Neither the Ukrainian nor the Russian government has disclosed the number of Russian soldiers captured during the Kursk offensive.