Ukraine and Russia exchange cross-border strikes, three killed
Al Jazeera
A 44-year-old railway worker was killed in Ukraine's Sumy region and two civilians died in Russia's Bryansk region as cross-border attacks continue. Ukrainian drone strikes also hit facilities deep inside Russia, including Tatarstan and Togliatti, as part of Kyiv's strategy to disrupt Russian logistics and infrastructure.
Three people have died in the border area between Russia and Ukraine as both sides launched attacks against each other in the latest round of fighting, officials said.
In Russia, two civilians were killed and two injured in the Bryansk region after Ukrainian artillery struck the settlement of Suzemka, Acting Governor Ygor Kovalchuk said in a Telegram post on Friday.
A drone also hit an apartment building in Russia's central Tatarstan region, injuring three people, while industrial facilities were also targeted, regional head Rustam Minnikhanov said on Telegram.
He said production had not been halted but did not identify any factories. The region is home to major oil refining and petrochemical facilities, among others.
Russia's Togliatti, home to the country's largest car manufacturer Avtovaz, also suffered an overnight drone attack, Samara region Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said on Telegram.
“Attention! Drone attack mode in Togliatti,” he wrote. Togliatti is a city on the Volga River, about 800km southeast of Moscow.
These attacks are what Ukraine calls “logistics blockade”, Al Jazeera’s Audrey MacAlpine, reporting from Kyiv, said. She explained that these are medium-range strikes anywhere beyond 30km from the front line, using long-range drones and sometimes heavy weapons to target items such as refineries, bridges, logistics, and roads as a way to hamper Russia’s front-line operations.
At the same time, she said, Ukraine is also conducting what it calls “long-range sanctions” on Russian targets – a term “tongue-in-cheek … we have seen escalating over the past few months as Ukraine has targeted Russian refineries and the oil industry,” MacAlpine said.
In Ukraine, a drone attack in the border region of Sumy caused casualties.
A 44-year-old railway station operator was killed while heading to a shelter during the attack, according to the head of Ukraine’s Railways, Oleksandr Pertsovkyi.
Another woman, a station employee, was wounded in the attack, Pertsovkyi added.
Three people were wounded in separate attacks in the southern Mykolaiv region.
“We have seen constant threats from Russia regarding large-scale attacks, and we have certainly seen the result of those actions in cities like Kyiv, where ballistic weapons remain Ukraine’s vulnerability,” MacAlpine said.
In recent months, Kyiv has carried out increasingly numerous attacks into Russia and occupied Russian territories.
On Thursday, gas stations in Russian-occupied Crimea ran out of petrol after Ukraine’s campaign targeting the peninsula’s supply routes escalated.
A witness in Sevastopol, the peninsula’s largest city, told Reuters that most local filling stations had no fuel, with supply struggling to keep up with the rationing regime imposed in recent weeks.
Another witness in the resort town of Yevpatoriya said there was a long queue outside the only station still open there.
Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks on supply routes to the peninsula, which Russia seized from Kyiv in 2014. Local authorities have imposed fuel rationing, and some food items have also become scarce.
Apart from Russian-occupied Crimea, only two regions in Siberia have formally confirmed shortages.
Most other regions said the situation was under control and that any disruption was caused by panic buying. Moscow has denied any problems with fuel supplies.
