KIEV (Reuters) – Ukrainian officials said Russia attacked military and infrastructure targets across Ukraine early on Tuesday, including in the capital Kiev and the western city of Lviv.
Ukraine said it had shot down 32 of the 35 Iranian-made drones launched from Russia’s Bryansk region and the Sea of Azov.
The region’s governor, Maksim Kozitsky, said a “very important facility” was bombed in Lviv, far from the front lines and about 70 kilometers (43 miles) from the border with NATO member Poland. He gave no other details about the facility.
There was no sign of any casualties in the nighttime air strikes, the latest by Moscow since Kiev launched a counter-offensive in which it says it has recaptured 113 square kilometers of territory from Russian forces.
The Air Force said on the Telegram messaging app that air defenses were operating in most regions of Ukraine.
“Nevertheless, the main direction of attack by Iranian drones was the Kiev region. More than twenty witnesses were destroyed here,” she added.
President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office said drones attacked the Kiev region in several waves, with the air alert remaining for more than four hours. She explained that many commercial and administrative buildings and some private homes were damaged.
[1/5] An explosion of a drone is seen in the city sky during a Russian drone strike, amid a Russian attack on Ukraine, in Kiev, Ukraine, June 20, 2023. (Reuters)/Gleb Garanich
The energy ministry said debris from the drone strikes destroyed power lines in the Kiev region as well as in the Mykolaiv region in the south, cutting off power to hundreds of residents.
Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said in a radio interview that it was simply not possible for air defense systems to cover every country the size of Ukraine.
The air force said Russia also bombed the industrial city of Zaporizhia in the southeast of the country with S-300 Iskander missiles.
Yuri Malashko, head of the military administration for the Zaporizhia region, said Russia had targeted communications infrastructure, farming and farming property.
According to preliminary information, the Ukrainian military said that Russia had fired seven missiles at Zaporozhye.
The prosecutor’s office said a 70-year-old woman was killed and three people were wounded on Monday during a Russian artillery attack on the northeastern Sumy region.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Russia.
(Reporting by Olenna Harmash in Kiev and Lydia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Timothy Heritage
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