Air war escalates – Kyiv and Moscow complain about civilian casualties

Ukraine war

Air war escalates – Kyiv and Moscow complain about civilian casualties

Many people die in a Russian missile strike in eastern Ukraine. There are also victims in drone attacks on Kiev. Experts speak of an escalation of violence on both sides.

In the Ukraine war, violence from air strikes increased massively: Kyiv reported at least 10 deaths in Russian rocket attacks in the eastern Kharkiv region, while Moscow recorded the worst drone attack in two years. At least 18 people were injured in the Russian airstrike in Pechenihy, around 55 kilometers east of Kharkiv, the regional governor Oleh Synjehubov said on Telegram. Civilian infrastructure was damaged, including ten private houses, a café and shops.

The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the “brutal attack on a busy intersection.” There is a post office, shops and only residential buildings in the area. “The circumstances of this tragedy are currently being clarified,” Zelensky said on Telegram. “We will respond to this Russian attack without fail.” At the same time he called on the allies of the Ukraine to “complement Kiev’s military responses with its own measures to put pressure on Russia to exercise”.

Russia and Ukraine have significantly increased their mutual air strikes. Experts speak of an escalation of violence on both sides. Russia has recently increased its attacks with cruise missiles and rockets, while Ukraine is relying primarily on increasingly faster and long-range drones, but also on cruise missiles.

Meanwhile, Moscow and the Russian capital region also experienced the worst wave of Ukrainian attacks in two years. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced that 620 drones had flown towards the capital region from Monday evening to Tuesday morning. Most of them were repelled by air defense as they approached, and another 180 drones were then taken out of the sky in the Moscow area. The information could not be independently verified.

According to Governor Andrei Vorobyov, three people, including a ten-year-old, were injured in drone attacks at various locations in the Moscow area. He reported damage and several fires in various places in the region, including residential buildings. According to Vorobyov, the Ukrainian drone attacks once again hit a warehouse belonging to the largest Russian online mail order company, Wildberries. As a result, a fire broke out and there were no injuries.

The Defense Ministry in Moscow said it had fended off 791 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory and the annexed Black Sea peninsula of Crimea during the night. The information cannot be independently verified, but allows conclusions to be drawn about the intensity of the Ukrainian counterattacks. Ukrainian air defense said that Russia had attacked with 147 drones. Most of the flying objects were shot down.