Russian drones and missiles are destroying cities across Ukraine

Kharkiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Ukrainian authorities said on Friday that more than two dozen people were injured in the Ukrainian border city of Kharkiv and one was killed in the southern city of Odesa on Friday as a result of Russian attacks escalating the bombing of Moscow overnight.

Issued: 11.08.2024 – 10:06Changed: 11.08.2024 – 10:04

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AFP reporters in Kharkiv saw rescue workers pulling panicked civilians out of Soviet-era residential buildings, which were surrounded by broken glass and debris, at night.

“During the evening and night, terrorists attacked our cities and settlements. In Odesa, Kharkiv, and Kyiv regions, rockets, drones, and planning bombs were used,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said on social media.

The Air Force stated that Moscow had launched five missiles, 92 drones and cruise bombs over Ukraine overnight. His units shot down four missiles and 62 drones, the report said.

Meanwhile, the death toll from the Russian attack a day earlier on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia has doubled to eight, including an infant, the regional governor said.

In Kharkiv, which Russia is increasingly shelling at night, 25 people were injured during shelling of residential and commercial areas of the city.

Concerns about US aid

Four people were wounded outside Kiev, which has come under near-daily shelling for the past month and where AFP journalists heard air raid sirens and at least one explosion echoing over the capital.

In the historic Black Sea city of Odesa, one person died and nine others were injured in an attack that damaged residential buildings, the authorities said.

The latest night of deadly strikes comes at a critical juncture in the war launched by the Kremlin nearly three years ago.

Ukrainian forces are losing ground in the east of the country, and concerns are growing in Kyiv about the future of foreign military aid after Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election.

The city of Zaporizhia, where authorities say more than 40 people were wounded in Thursday’s attack, has also seen increased Russian aerial bombardment in recent weeks.

Six people were killed during a strike in the city’s industrial sector earlier this week.

In late 2022, the Kremlin said it had annexed the wider Zaporizhzhia region, along with Donetsk region, where Russian troops are advancing rapidly despite not having full military control over them.

Meanwhile, Russian officials in the occupied territory of Ukraine in Donetsk said that Ukrainian drones killed two workers of a utility company.