Russia fired nearly 50 Shahed drones at targets in Ukraine and shelled a train station where more than 100 civilians had gathered to board a train to Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said today.
The barrage of attacks killed at least five people and knocked out power in most of the southern city of Kherson.
The airstrikes came a day after Ukrainian warplanes damaged a Russian ship anchored in the Black Sea off Crimea as soldiers from both sides struggled to make much progress along the front lines of the 22-month war.
Overnight, Kremlin forces launched artillery and drone bombardments in the Kherson region just as about 140 civilians were waiting for a train in the regional capital of the same name, according to Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.
The attack killed one policeman and injured two other policemen, as well as two civilians.
More than 100 people were waiting for the train when the attack arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday morning, national railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia said.
Rescuers work through debris following a Russian military attack in Kherson, Ukraine December 27, 2023. REUTERS Kremlin forces launched artillery and drone bombardments in Kherson region as about 140 civilians waited for a train in the regional capital of the same name. REUTERS Workers clear the area of a train station following an attack in Kherson, Ukraine on Dec. 27, 2023. REUTERS
The attack on Kherson region and its capital hit residential areas and shopping centers and affected the power grid, leaving about 70% of households in the city of Kherson without electricity during the winter, regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
It could not immediately estimate when power might be restored, he said.
Targeting energy infrastructure was also a Russian tactic last winter, when it tried to discourage Ukraine by denying them heating and running water.
In Odesa, another major city in southern Ukraine, the drone strike killed two people and injured three, including a 17-year-old boy, regional Governor Oleh Kiper said.
The attack on Kherson province and its capital hit residential areas and shopping centers and disrupted power grids. REUTERS Fire burns a building following a Russian attack in Ukraine’s Odesa region on Dec. 27, 2023. via REUTERS
Ukraine’s air force said it intercepted 32 of the 46 drones shot down by Russia overnight.
Meanwhile, Western military assessments reckon that Russia’s capture this week of a town in eastern Ukraine will not give it a springboard for big gains on the battlefield.
Ukraine’s commander-in-chief General Valerii Zaluzhnyi said on Tuesday that his forces had withdrawn to the northern outskirts of the town of Marinka, which is about 12 miles west of Donetsk, the largest city in the Russian-held region.
Zaluzhnyi said his troops had held Marinka for nearly two years but the Russians “destroyed him street by street, house by house.”
A drone strike in Odesa killed two people and injured three, including a 17-year-old boy. AP
The Institute of War Studies, a think tank, said “Russian forces are highly unlikely to make rapid operational progress from Marinka.”
But it noted that “local Russian offensive operations are still putting pressure on Ukrainian forces in many places along the front in eastern Ukraine.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
