KYIV: Russia and Ukraine exchanged strikes overnight that killed civilians and injured many others on both sides, local authorities reported.
In Russia's border region of Belgorod, Ukrainian drones killed five people and injured two dozen others, including a 4-year-old boy, according to the regional administration.
Russian missiles struck a high-rise apartment block in Kharkiv's Saltivskyi district, killing two people and injuring 13, according to regional head Oleh Syniehubov. Eight more people were injured in Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa after "dozens of missiles and drones" struck the city and surrounding region, according to local administration head Oleh Kiper.
Large-scale Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian cities have become almost routine in recent weeks, with Moscow exploiting Ukraine's critical shortage of interceptors for the US-made Patriot systems — the sole air defense weapon in its arsenal able to shoot down ballistic missiles.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has for months lobbied other countries, especially the US, to send Ukraine more Patriot systems made scarcer by the Iran war, arguing they are crucial for defending civilians.
Failing that, Zelenskyy wants to make Patriot ammunition in Ukraine or get approval from Elon Musk to use his Starlink satellite communications system to guide strikes inside Russia that can hit its missile launchers.
Meanwhile, Kyiv has kept up long-range drone strikes against Russian energy infrastructure, as well as the country's largest online retailer, Wildberries, and other targets deep inside Russia, sparking a fuel crisis.
Russia's defense ministry on Sunday claimed its overnight strikes hit drone warehouses in the Kharkiv region, as well as fuel depots and stores of other materiel belonging to Ukraine's armed forces at the port of Odesa.
It said its forces had shot down 153 Ukrainian drones during the night, including over Russian-occupied Crimea and the Black and Azov seas.
In Russia's Belgorod region, the authorities said Ukrainian drone strikes damaged 29 apartment blocks and five private houses, as well as administrative buildings and unspecified "commercial facilities."