KYIV: Russian shelling and strikes on Ukraine’s Kherson region killed one person and wounded several, with at least two civilians also killed in attacks on the centre and east of the country, Kyiv said on Saturday.

Russia’s invasion has dragged on for more than two years, with fierce fighting in the east and regular attacks away from the frontline.

Kyiv’s interior ministry said Russian shelling killed a 58-year-old woman in the southern village of Olhivka on the Dnipro river. Officials also said a Russian air bomb fell near a residential building in the city of Kherson, wounding a child.

“Last night, the Russian army struck the city with a bomb. The shell landed near a five-storey building,” Kherson’s administration said on social media. It published a video of a destroyed building, with a large crater outside it.

“A seven-year-old boy who suffered from the shelling is under medical supervision,” authorities said, adding that “the child’s life is not in danger.” Authorities said two more people were pulled out alive from the damaged building and that “the rest of the residents were quickly evacuated.” Kyiv also said a teenage boy was killed as he walked with his elder brother in the village of Chervonogrygorivka, on the Dnipro river in the central Dnipropetrovsk region.

“Two brothers came under fire in the middle of the street: 16 and 22 years old. The younger one died from his wounds,” the interior ministry said. “The older one was taken to the hospital with serious injuries. Doctors are fighting for his life,” it added.

In the embattled eastern Donetsk region, officials said a man had been killed in the frontline town of Chasiv Yar.

“A 46-year-old man was fatally wounded,” Vadym Filashkin, the head of the Donetsk region said on social media. Filashkin earlier said officials evacuated almost 200 people from frontline villages, including 21 children, amid heavy fighting. Kyiv’s air force said Saturday it had downed 12 out of 15 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Russia over the eastern Donetsk region and central Dnipropetrovsk and Poltava regions.

Russia destroys 47 drones

Russia said on Saturday it had destroyed 47 Ukrainian drones over its southern regions overnight, mostly in the Rostov area bordering Ukraine. Kyiv has regularly launched drones into Russia during Moscow’s military offensive in Ukraine, now in its third year.

“Air defence systems on duty intercepted and destroyed over the territories of Belgorod region (one drone), Kursk region (two drones), Volgograd region (three drones) and Rostov region (41 drones),” the Russian army said on social media.

The southern Rostov region is a hub for the Russian army to plan its military operations in Ukraine.

Rostov governor Vasily Golubev said on social media that a drone attack had hit the city of Taganrog, on the Azov Sea near a Russian-occupied part of Ukraine. He said a rescue worker was wounded but there were “no dead”.

Social media channels close to the Russian army said Ukraine had targeted an aviation plant in Taganrog. “In Taganrog, in all likelihood, the target of the raid was the Beriev aviation plant,” Telegram channel Rybar, with close army links, said.

The channel also alleged that another target was a military air base further into Russia in the town of Morozovsk.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2024