Two killed in latest Russian, Ukrainian attacks

KYIV (AFP): A Russian drone attack near the Ukrainian capital on Friday killed one person, while a Ukrainian attack on a Russian border village also killed one, local officials in both countries said.

Both sides have escalated their attacks through the first weeks of winter, including a Russian strike targeting central Kyiv in the early hours of New Year’s Day that killed two.

“One person killed and four wounded in enemy air attack on Kyiv region,” Mykola Kalashnyk, the head of the Kyiv region, which surrounds the capital, said on social media on Friday.

He said a truck driver had been killed after he was hit by falling debris from a Russian drone that had been shot down.

Wreckage also fell on a house, wounding three – including a 16-year-old boy and his father.

Later on Friday, the Russian governor of the Bryansk region said a Ukrainian attack on a village close to the border killed one civilian.

Despite the fighting, many residents in both Russia and Ukraine remain living in villages close to the front lines that regularly come under attack.

The Ukrainian air force said Russia launched a total of 93 drones in its latest overnight attack. It said 60 attack drones and 26 decoy-style drones were downed or “lost” – either shot down or disabled by electronic interceptors.

Downed drones also fell on two districts of Kyiv, but there were no injuries, the city mayor said.