At least seven people were killed after a Ukrainian drone struck a bus in the Russian-controlled Donetsk region, according to the Moscow-installed regional leader, Denis Pushilin. The incident comes amid ongoing escalation of attacks between the two sides.
Denis Pushilin said on Telegram on June 4 that the bus was traveling on a route from Moscow to Simferopol, the capital of Crimea. The attack left 11 others injured with varying degrees of severity, all receiving necessary medical care.
Russia's state news agency Tass quoted Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for the Russian Investigative Committee, as saying that a criminal investigation was opened on charges of "terrorist attack" related to the incident.
In other developments, Leningrad region Governor Alexander Drozdenko said that during the night of June 4, 50 Ukrainian drones were shot down in the region and suspected attacks were ongoing. At the same time, drones attacked the city of Michurinsk in the Tambov region of central Russia, damaging auxiliary buildings of an industrial facility, an apartment block, and a library, according to Tambov Governor Yevgeny Pervyshov.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported that during the night, 354 Ukrainian drones were "intercepted and destroyed" across various regions. The attacks came just one day after the Ukrainian Air Force reported that Moscow had launched 656 drones overnight and into the early hours of June 3. The Ukrainian Air Force said 54 drones and 33 missiles penetrated the country's multi-layered air defense, killing at least 23 people, according to local authorities.
Earlier, Russia said the large-scale drone attacks on June 3 were in retaliation for a deadly attack on a dormitory in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region two weeks earlier.
