Russian strikes kill civilians as Ukraine hits targets inside Russia

Russian attacks killed at least 11 people in Ukraine on Friday, while Ukrainian strikes deep inside Russia killed six others and hit warehouses belonging to the country’s biggest online retailer, officials on both sides said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a Russian missile strike in the Kyiv region killed six people and wounded dozens, according to Al Jazeera. The BBC, citing a national official, reported that 10 people were killed in ballistic missile strikes just outside Kyiv and that Zelenskyy said about 100 people were injured there.

“A rescue operation is currently underway in the Kyiv region following a Russian missile strike … tragically, six people were killed,” Zelenskyy said, according to Al Jazeera.

The attack took place in the middle of the day at a training ground near Kyiv where a military exhibition was being held and representatives of Ukraine’s defence industry were present, the BBC reported. Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuri Ihnat told Ukrainian television that Russia fired three ballistic missiles and that only one was intercepted.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko earlier reported explosions in the city and urged residents to remain in shelters while air defences were operating.

The BBC reported that the strike appeared to have targeted Defence Ministry adviser Serhiy Beskrestnov, known as Flash, and Lyuba Shypovych, who has been involved in developing technology for the Ukrainian army. Both later said on social media that they were safe.

The holding of the event drew outrage in Ukraine because it was public and had apparently been widely advertised, the BBC reported. Zelenskyy said the incident was being investigated, and Ukraine’s prosecutor general said authorities were working to determine who decided to hold the event and what safety measures were in place.

In eastern Ukraine, five people were killed and nine others wounded in Sloviansk after Moscow dropped two aviation bombs on the city, regional governor Vadym Filashkin said.

“Russians attack our cities daily – and for the second day in a row, their attacks have led to numerous casualties in Sloviansk,” Filashkin said. “I call on everyone who is still near the front line: evacuate.”

In the southern Mykolaiv region, a Russian drone attack on port infrastructure damaged two civilian vessels, acting regional governor Heorhii Reshetilov said on Telegram. No injuries were reported in that attack.

Russia also claimed it had taken control of the villages of Zakharivka and Ivashchyne in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, and said it had struck 27 vessels used by the Ukrainian military in the past week, Al Jazeera reported.

Ukraine, meanwhile, struck targets far inside Russia. In the Kirov region, more than 1,000 km, or 600 miles, from the front line, six people were killed and 26 injured in a Ukrainian attack on a factory, regional governor Alexander Sokolov said. Zelenskyy said the strike targeted “one of the most important military facilities” in Kirov, which he said “supplies components for aircraft and missile equipment” used in attacks on Ukraine.

Ukrainian attacks also hit warehouses belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer. Wildberries founder Tatyana Kim said the latest strikes targeted warehouses in Saint Petersburg, the surrounding Leningrad region and Simferopol, the main city in Crimea.

“We managed to save some of the premises and goods. I would like to thank our staff, our heroes – a swift evacuation was carried out at all warehouses,” Kim said. “According to preliminary reports, there were no casualties.”

The BBC reported that Wildberries warehouses have been hit three times in six days, while Al Jazeera reported they have been targeted four times since last weekend. Earlier strikes killed seven night-shift workers in Kotovsk and one person at Elektrostal, injured dozens more and destroyed goods estimated at £750m, or $1bn, the BBC reported.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said it shot down 571 Ukrainian drones overnight across more than a dozen Russian regions and annexed Crimea, according to Al Jazeera.

Separately, Romanian President Nicusor Dan said a Romanian F-16 fighter jet shot down a Russian drone that breached the country’s airspace on Friday. Romanian authorities had earlier issued alerts across several eastern and south-eastern counties.