Ukrainian officials say civilians were killed and wounded in Russian overnight attacks

2023-10-21 19:17

Ukrainian officials say at least two civilians were killed and others wounded across Ukraine in the past 24 hours as Russian forces continued to shell front-line areas and other parts of the country

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — At least two civilians were killed and others wounded across Ukraine as Russian forces continued to shell frontline areas and other parts of the country, local Ukrainian officials reported Saturday.

In Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown in central Ukraine, a 60-year-old man died on Friday evening when a Russian missile slammed into an industrial facility, according to Telegram posts by Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul. Vilkul added that the man's wife was hospitalized with serious shrapnel wounds.

Early on Saturday, Vilkul reported that Russian missiles and drones overnight hit the same site again, causing unspecified damage and sparking a fire that was put out by morning. Vilkul did not elaborate on the site's nature or whether it was linked to Ukraine's war effort. He said nobody was hurt in the second strike.

In Ukraine's front-line Kherson region in the south, one civilian was killed and another suffered wounds as Russian forces launched “mass shelling” attacks, Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin reported on Saturday. In a Telegram post, Prokudin said that Russian troops used mortars, artillery, tanks, drones, and multiple-rocket launchers to target the province, striking some residential areas.

Russian shelling over the past day also wounded one civilian in the front-line city of Avdiivka, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, acting local Gov. Ihor Moroz reported on Saturday. Avdiivka has been fiercely contested by Russian and Ukrainian forces over the past weeks as Kyiv’s forces try to hold off waves of Russian attacks. Moroz said that exploding drones, missiles, mortars and artillery shells fired by Russian troops also struck other parts of the province.

In the northeastern Kharkiv region, a 39-year-old civilian man was hospitalized with wounds as Russian shelling hit two village homes near the embattled town of Kupiansk, local Gov. Oleh Syniehubov reported on Saturday. Russian forces have for weeks been pressing an offensive to retake territory near Kupiansk and the nearby town of Lyman.

Local Ukrainian authorities also reported Russian attacks on Friday and overnight on the northern Sumy and southern Zaporizhzhia provinces, but made no mention of casualties.