6 killed as Russia unleashes strikes on Ukraine after drone assault on oil tanker

By Associated Press: Russia unleashed a missile and drone barrage Sunday throughout components of Ukraine that killed six folks, Kyiv officers mentioned, as Moscow adopted by way of on its promise to retaliate for an assault on a Russian tanker.

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 mentioned Russia launched 70 drones and missiles from plane over the Caspian Sea, together with Iranian-made, Shahed-136/131 strike UAVs.

Three waves of missiles hit the Starokostiantyniv space, damaging a number of buildings and igniting a fireplace at a warehouse, mentioned Serhiy Tyurin, deputy head of Ukraine’s Khmelnytsky area army administration. The strike could have been meant for the town’s airfield, officers mentioned.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned the amenities of plane engine producer Motor Sich within the Zaporizhzhia area had additionally come below assault.

The Russian barrage adopted 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,” she posted on the Telegram messaging app.

An official with Ukraine’s Security Service confirmed to The Associated Press {that a} Ukrainian drone filled with 450 kilograms (992 kilos) of explosives struck the tanker that was transporting gasoline for Russian forces. The official spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of he was not licensed 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 connecting the Russian-occupied Kherson area and northern Crimea, inflicting minor injury to the span’s roadway, mentioned Vladimir Saldo, the Moscow-installed chief of the Kherson area. He additionally mentioned a number of extra rockets had been shot down by air protection forces.

The bridge, which is one in all three key spans connecting the Crimean Peninsula to the mainland, was beforehand attacked on July 22 and July 29.

Two of the six killed in a single day occurred throughout a Russian airstrike in Ukraine’s Kharkiv area, in line with the top of the native regional army administration, Oleh Syniehubov. Four others have been injured.

Zelenskyy mentioned a guided bomb had hit a blood transfusion middle within the space’s Kupyan district late on Saturday.

“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 entrance line in japanese Ukraine as Kyiv continued its ongoing counteroffensive. Elsewhere within the Kharkiv area, a 58-year-old girl was killed and a 66-year-old man was wounded after Russian shelling of the village of Podoly, an official mentioned. In Ukraine’s japanese Kupyan area, Russian missiles injured a 55-year-old man and ignited a forest hearth, officers mentioned on social media. Russian assaults within the Donetsk area villages of Torske and Niu-York killed two folks, native Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko mentioned on social media.

Ukrainian shelling in Russian-held Donetsk killed a girl in her 80s, Moscow-appointed Mayor Alexei Kulemzin mentioned. The shelling additionally set the principle constructing of a college on hearth, in line with Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-installed head of the illegally annexed area.

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

Moscow’s Vnukovo airport, positioned 15 kilometers (9 miles) southwest of the capital, briefly suspended flights Sunday morning after a drone was shot down within the airspace across the metropolis. It was the fourth assault on Moscow in a month, highlighting the town’s vulnerability as Russia’s struggle grinds into its 18th month. The drone was destroyed by air protection programs within the Podolsk area of the Moscow suburbs, Russia’s Defense Ministry mentioned.

It mentioned nobody was injured from the abortive drone assault, though Russian media outlet Baza later reported a 77-year-old man suffered a shrapnel wound on his hand. The studies couldn’t be independently verified.

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

Flights have been final halted on the airport on July 30, when two drones crashed into the Moscow City enterprise district after being jammed by Russian air defenses.

Also on Sunday, Ukraine changed the Soviet hammer and sickle that adorned the 200-foot (61-meter) Mother Ukraine statue in Kyiv with the tryzub, the three-pronged trident that was formally adopted because the nation’s coat of arms in 1992.

The change to one of many nation’s most recognizable landmarks is a part of a wider shift all through Ukraine to reclaim its cultural identification from the Soviet period amid Russia’s ongoing invasion.