Russian glide bombs, drones and a ballistic missile kill six people and injure 30 in Ukraine

Kyiv, Ukraine – Russian glide bombs, drones and a ballistic missile struck cities in southern and eastern Ukraine on Monday, officials said, killing at least six civilians and wounding about 30 others.

Russia has recently stepped up attacks that have long plagued civilian areas, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, apparently in an attempt to unsettle Ukrainians and wear down their willingness to continue a war that is nearing its 1,000-day milestone .

“Every day, every night, Russia commits the same terror,” Zelensky said in a post on the messaging app Telegram. “Except that more and more civilian objects are becoming targets.”

Both Russia and Ukraine are waiting to see how Washington will change its war policy after Donald Trump takes office in January. The United States is the largest donor of military aid to Ukraine, but Trump has rebuked the Biden administration for giving tens of billions of dollars in aid to Kiev.

The major cities attacked by Russia on Monday are close to the war’s front line, which is around 1,000 kilometers long.

Russian drones bombed the southern city of Mykolaiv, killing five people and wounding a 45-year-old woman, local authorities said. About two dozen people sought psychological help after the attack that damaged homes and businesses, officials said.

Mykolaiv, located about 60 kilometers northwest of the front line in the Kherson region, is frequently attacked by Russia.

A nighttime attack on Zaporizhia, also in the south, with three powerful glide bombs killed one person and wounded 21, including a four-year-old boy, Ukrainian national police said.

As a result of the strikes, a two-story apartment building was partially destroyed and a dormitory was damaged.

A five-story apartment building in Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky’s hometown in central Ukraine, was hit by a Russian ballistic missile, injuring at least eight people. Emergency services were searching the rubble, said Oleksandr Vikul, head of Kryviy Rih’s military administration.

The rocket destroyed all five floors in one part of the building, he said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian intelligence claimed in a statement that it had destroyed a Russian Mi-24 attack helicopter parked at the Klin-5 airfield in the Moscow region. The claim could not be independently verified.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday that 17 Ukrainian drones were destroyed over the Russian regions of Kursk, Belgorod and Voronezh during the night and morning.

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