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Six killed in Russian attack across Ukraine


By BBC
Published : 26 Aug 2024 09:01 PM

At least six people have been killed after Russia launched a massive attack across Ukraine, seriously damaging some power and water supplies.

Explosions rang out in several cities including Kyiv on Monday morning, as more than half of the country's regions came under attack.

Authorities in Zaporizhzhia, Lutsk, Kharkiv, Zhytomyr and Dnipropetrovsk regions reported people had died in the huge air raid, which featured missiles and drones.

Russia's defence ministry confirmed it had targeted Ukraine's energy infrastructure - one of its long-term tactics - and said all its targets were hit.

The barrage of drone and missile attacks began across the country overnight on Monday and continued well into the morning, Ukraine's air force said on Telegram. Explosions were heard in numerous cities from Lutsk in the west to Dnipro in the east as people were urged to stay in shelters and the entire country was put under air raid alert.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had fired more than 100 missiles and about 100 drones.

"This was one of the largest strikes," he said, adding there was a lot of damage to energy facilities, he added.

Mr Zelensky also called on Western allies including Britain, America and France to change their rules and let Ukraine use their weapons to strike deeper inside Russia. Ukraine is allowed to use some Western weapons to hit targets inside Russia - but not long-range weapons.

And he said "we could do much more to protect lives" if European air forces worked with Ukraine's air defence.

Some 15 regions of Ukraine were targeted by Russia, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said, using weapons including drones, cruise missiles and supersonic missiles.

"There are wounded and dead," Mr Shmyhal said on the Telegram social media app.