Russia mounts a large missile and drone assault towards Ukraine following its retaliation promise

KYIV, Ukraine — Moscow unleashed a large missile and drone barrage on western Ukraine Sunday, following by means of on its promise to retaliate for a Ukrainian assault on a Russian tanker.

Russian and Ukrainian shelling throughout the nation in a single day killed in at the very least six folks, officers stated.

Separately, Moscow’s second-largest airport briefly suspended flights early Sunday following a foiled drone assault close to the Russian capital.

Ukraine’s air pressure stated Russia launched 70 assault drones and missiles, together with cruise missiles from plane over the Caspian Sea and Iranian-made, Shahed-136/131 strike UAVs.

Serhiy Tyurin, deputy head of Ukraine’s Khmelnytsky area navy administration, stated three waves of missiles hit the Starokostiantyniv space, damaging a number of buildings and igniting a hearth at a warehouse. The strike could have been supposed for town’s airfield, officers stated.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated the services of plane engine producer Motor Sich within the Zaporizhzhia area had additionally come underneath assault.

The Russian barrage got here after a Ukrainian drone assault on a Russian tanker within the Black Sea close to Crimea late Friday. Ukraine additionally struck a serious Russian port with drones earlier the identical day.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned what she known as a Ukrainian “terrorist attack” on a civilian vessel within the Kerch Strait.

“There can be no justification for such barbaric actions, they will not go unanswered and their authors and perpetrators will inevitably be punished,” Zakharova posted on the Telegram messaging app.

An official with Ukraine’s Security Service confirmed to The Associated Press {that a} Ukrainian drone filled with 992 kilos of explosives the service struck the tanker that as transporting gas for Russian forces. The official spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of he was not approved to talk publicly.

Russia’s Federal Agency for Marine and River Transport posted on Telegram that though the drone blasted a gap within the tanker’s engine room, there have been no casualties among the many 11 crew members. On Sunday, a Ukrainian missile hit the Chonhar bridge that connects the Russian-occupied Kherson area and northern Crimea.

The strike induced minor injury to the bridge’s roadway, stated Vladimir Saldo, the Moscow-installed chief of the Kherson area. He additionally stated that a number of extra rockets had been shot down by air protection forces on the time of the assault.

The bridge, which is certainly one of three key highway bridges connecting the Crimean peninsula to the mainland, was beforehand attacked on July 22 and 29.

Two of the six fatalities in a single day Sunday occurred throughout a Russian air strike in Ukraine’s Kharkiv area, in accordance with the top of the native regional navy administration, Oleh Syniehubov. Another 4 folks had been injured.

Zelenskyy stated {that a} guided bomb had hit a blood transfusion middle within the space’s Kupyan district late on August 5.

“This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media. “Defeating terrorists is a matter of honor for everyone who values life.”

Heavy shelling continued alongside the frontline in Eastern Ukraine as Kyiv continues to push ahead with its ongoing counteroffensive. Elsewhere within the Kharkiv area, a 58-year-old girl was killed and a 66-year-old man was hospitalized after Russian shelling of the village of Podoly, an official stated. In Ukraine’s japanese Kupyan area, Russian missiles injured a 55-year-old man and ignited a forest hearth, officers stated on social media. Russian assaults within the Donetsk area villages of Torske and Niu-York killed two folks, native governor Pavlo Kyrylenko posted on social media.

Ukrainian shelling in Russian-held Donetsk killed a lady in her eighties, town’s Moscow-appointed mayor Alexei Kulemzin stated Sunday. The shelling additionally set the primary constructing of a college on hearth, in accordance with the Moscow-installed head of the illegally annexed area, Denis Pushilin.

Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry stated that the blaze induced the constructing’s roof to break down, however that there have been no casualties.

Moscow’s Vnukovo airport, positioned 9 miles southwest of the Russian capital, briefly suspended flights Sunday morning after a drone was shot down within the airspace across the metropolis. The assault was certainly one of 4 strikes on the Russian capital within the house of a month, spotlighting Moscow’s vulnerability as Russia’s battle in Ukraine drags into its second yr.

The drone was destroyed by air protection techniques within the Podolsk area of the Moscow suburbs, the Russian protection ministry stated.

The Russian protection ministry stated nobody was injured from the abortive drone assault, though Russian media outlet Baza later reported {that a} 77-year-old man suffered a shrapnel wound to his hand. The reviews couldn’t be independently verified.

Ukrainian authorities, which usually keep away from commenting on assaults on Russian soil, didn’t say whether or not it launched the raid.