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Russian drones killed a three-year-old boy and his grandparents in a village in the Kyiv region, and another person was killed during an overnight ballistic attack on the capital, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday.
Russia in recent months has intensified attacks on Kyiv, while Ukraine has targeted Russian oil facilities and logistics infrastructure to try to undermine Moscow’s ability to wage war.
Both Russia and Ukraine deny deliberately targeting civilians in their attacks.
Russia launched six ballistic missiles and 151 drones at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force said.
Retired major-general Scott Clancy says Ukraine has been fighting a war of attrition as Western allies provide enough support to keep it in the fight but not enough to secure victory. He says Ukraine urgently needs more air defence systems and long-range capabilities as Russia ramps up missile production.
The Ukrainian general staff also said on Saturday its military hit Russia’s Ilsky and Syzran oil refineries during overnight attacks, causing fires at both.
Local authorities also said five people were wounded in Russia’s Krasnodar region in southern Russia following a Ukrainian drone attack.
Ukraine’s air defence shortage
“Europe, America and Ukraine have long wanted to stop this Russian war,” Zelenskyy said on the Telegram app.
“Only [Russian President Vladimir] Putin doesn’t want to, and he’s desperately clinging to his ballistic missiles and drones to keep the war going. More pressure is needed.”
Zelenskyy is in Serbia, making his first visit to the Balkan country, which, like Ukraine, is seeking European Union membership.
The president has been pressing for extra help as the country is chronically short of air defence missiles for U.S. Patriot systems. The Defence Ministry said that only 29 out of 195 ballistic missiles were intercepted in July.
Ukrainian air defences downed 135 drones, but they were not able to intercept ballistic missiles, the Ukrainian air force said on Saturday.
Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv regional administration, said Russian strikes were recorded at three locations in the Brovarskyi district, near the capital. In the region, 10 private houses, commercial and production facilities had been damaged.
One of the private houses in the village of Puhivka, about 30 kilometres from Kyiv, was set on fire after Russian drones killed the child and his grandparents. His parents and his 15-year-old brother and their neighbor were wounded, Zelenskyy said.
In Kyiv, fires were reported in three districts, officials said. Commercial premises and warehouses were damaged.
Reuters witnesses heard several powerful explosions that shook the centre of the city.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Saturday Russian forces had taken control of the settlement of Ivanivka in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.
Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield report. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
One woman described the stress of repeated attacks on Ukraine’s capital as living in a state of ‘constant fear,’ saying there’s no sleep for people in the area around Kyiv. Russia’s latest wave of strikes killed at least 17 people and damaged warehouses and logistics centres, Ukrainian officials say.
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