A Russian drone strikes an apartment building in Ukraine, killing at least 6
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KYIV, Ukraine — A Russian drone blasted a hole in an apartment building in northeastern Ukraine during a nighttime attack, killing at least six people and wounding nine others, officials said Thursday.
The Shahed drone blew out a wall and surrounding windows in the building in Sumy, a major city, just after 1 a.m., the Sumy regional administration said. Four people were rescued from the rubble, and a child was among the wounded, it said, adding that 120 people were evacuated.
The dead were three older married couples, Sumy Regional Prosecutors’ Office said. The regional administration announced two days of mourning in the city.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called it “a terrible tragedy, a terrible Russian crime.”
The full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine, which began nearly three years ago and shows no signs of ending, has killed more than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the United Nations.
Europe considers stationing thousands of troops in Ukraine in the case of a cease-fire with Moscow to serve as a deterrent should Russia invade again.
Civilians have also endured hardship caused by Russian attacks on the power grid that have denied them heating and running water. Many have been evacuated from areas along the roughly 600-mile front line where Ukrainian defenses are straining to hold the bigger Russian army at bay.
Russian forces have started using Shahed drones with an increased payload of 200 pounds of explosives and metal shrapnel to “increase the number of casualties,” the head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office, Andrii Yermak, said on Telegram.
Yermak published photographs of what he claimed were the Shahed warheads, with one photo showing what appeared to be small pieces of metal inside a metal cylinder casing.
The battlefield fighting has been especially fierce in recent times in the eastern Donetsk region, which Russian forces partly occupy and appear bent on capturing completely in coming months.
A Russian artillery strike on the Donetsk city of Kramatorsk wounded 13 people, including two young children, Donetsk regional head Vadym Filashkin wrote on his Telegram channel Thursday.
The Ukrainian air force says Russia launched 188 drones against most regions of Ukraine in a nighttime blitz.
“Anyone who still remains in the Donetsk region is putting themselves in mortal danger,” Filashkin said. “Take care of yourself! Evacuate.”
Russia launched more than 80 drones at Ukraine overnight, the air force reported, in what are common nighttime barrages. Most of the drones were shot down or stopped by electronic jamming, it said.
In Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, Russian drones damaged a hospital and two apartment buildings, regional head Oleh Kiper wrote on Telegram. No one was injured, he said.
Novikov writes for the Associated Press.
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