Russia continues to strike Ukraine, striking multiple cities

Ukraine continues to suffer from Russia’s relentless bombardment campaign. On Tuesday, the Kremlin launched a wide-range campaign against Kyiv, targeting several cities with rockets, missiles and drones.

In the central city of Cherkasy, debris from an Iranian-made Shahed drone launched by Moscow damaged the windows of five two-storey residential buildings, a school and a shop in the village of Zvenyhorodshchyna.

The drone was destroyed in the middle of the settlement according to the head of the village council, Larysa Kyrychenko.

The head of the regional military administration, Ihor Taburets, reported that Ukraine’s Air Defence Forces thwarted a Russian attack on the Cherkasy-Oblast region.

Taburets says Kyiv intercepted and destroyed seven Russian army drones on Tuesday. The attack was neutralised promptly and there were no reports of injuries or casualties.

Pokrovsk

In the eastern city of Pokrovsk, Ukrainian firefighters battled blazes after three multi-storey buildings and three houses were damaged after Russia launched a barrage of drones targeting the city.

Kyiv says Russia fired more than 130 Shahed strike drones and numerous decoy drones in the early hours of Tuesday. Ukraine’s Air Force says more than 70 drones were shot down and close to 60 others likely jammed.

Local authorities say one of the fires engulfed apartments across six floors of a nice-storey building that covered approximately one square kilometre.

The emergency response operations had to be paused at one point as authorities feared the risk of further attacks.

Dnipro

Ukrainian authorities say the Kremlin also targeted the Synelnykivskyi district of the central city of Dnipro.

Local officials say more than 150 houses suffered damage of varying degrees, and two two-storey buildings were wrecked as Russian rockets pummelled the area.

The attacks injured at least two people who were transferred to nearby hospitals for medical attention, and are continuing to receive assistance.

Local residents say the intensity of the attack was like a nightmare.

“Suddenly, there was a bang, and glass started falling on me. I started screaming, I had to get the children out. My son came over, the house was full of glass,” says Kateryna, a local resident.

“Then there was a second explosion. The doors flew all the way to the window, it was a nightmare. I never thought that at 40 years old I would be left under the open sky,” she added.

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Kharkiv

Moscow also launched a drone attack on Kharkiv early on Tuesday, striking a residential area in the north of the city.

A garage and one car were damaged, and close to two-dozen windows of homes in the Shevchenkivskyi area were smashed, according to Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov.

The strikes did not result in any direct casualties, but Terekhov says one person sought medical help after suffering an acute stress reaction.

Dmytro Chubenko, spokesman for the Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office says Russia used a Molniya unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to carry out this attack.

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“The enemy used a UAV called “Molniya”, the specific type of which is being established. It hit the ground, near the garage. The explosion damaged the garage itself, damaged a private car, and smashed windows in several apartments,” says Chubenko

The Molniya UAV is a barrage munition, sitting somewhere in the middle in terms of size between a large drone and a Shahed strike drone.

It’s fairly simple in design and technology and is a relatively cheap weapon, capable of carrying between three to five kilograms of explosives. It’s significantly less powerful than the Shahed drone, which can carry 50 kilograms of explosives.

Additional sources • EBU, AP