Russian strikes on Ukraine kill one, wound 24: governors

KYIV (AFP): Russia’s latest strikes on Ukrainian regions have killed one person and wounded 24, officials said on Monday.

One person was killed and seven wounded in the Kherson region Sunday, while in the Zaporizhzhia region, 16 people were wounded in a strike on the region’s eponymous capital overnight, governors and police said.

In Kherson, Russian shelling and air strikes hit residential buildings, killing one 61-year-old woman and wounding seven people Sunday, said governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

In Zaporizhzhia, 16 people were wounded after Russia carried out seven overnight air strikes on the city and the surrounding district, Ukraine’s National Police said.

The attacks came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visits the United States to present his plan to end two and a half years of war with Russia.

Zaporizhzhia governor Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram four of the wounded, all women, were hospitalized.

The governor and police posted images of blocks of flats with balconies and windows torn off and damaged cars.

“There was a ball of fire and an explosion here and it seemed very close to me,” an unnamed elderly woman said in a video posted by police.

Fedorov said 13 high-rise buildings were damaged as well as educational institutions and private houses.

Russia controls part of the territory in both the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.

Ukraine’s air force said air defenses had shot down three Shahed attack drones overnight and prevented another drone and two cruise missiles from reaching their targets.

In Russia, the defense ministry said it had intercepted and destroyed eight Ukrainian drones over its Kursk and Belgorod border regions overnight.