July 3 (Reuters) – A massive Russian bomb strike on the centre of the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy killed at least three people on Friday and injured others, including children, Regional Governor Oleh Hryhorov said.
Other areas in Sumy region and in southeastern Ukraine, closer to the front lines, also came under Russian attack, killing a total of six people.
“At the epicentre of the strike — a high-rise apartment building, a shop and a street,” Hryhorov wrote on Telegram of the strike in Sumy. “There were a great many people. Children.”
The injured were being transported to hospitals, he said, including a 13-year-old child in serious condition.
Sumy region, under near-constant attacks by Russian forces, is on the Russian border. Moscow has in recent months tried to expand what it describes as a buffer zone in the region.
Earlier in the day, one person was killed when Russian forces launched glide bombs near the city of Sumy.
To the southeast, more than 50 strikes involving drones, artillery and bombs killed three in Dnipropetrovsk region, including two near Nikopol, a town on the opposite bank of the Dnipro River from the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Twelve people were injured, Regional Governor Oleksandr Hanzha said on Telegram.
Two people were killed in a strike in the city of Zaporizhzhia, a frequent recent target of deadly attacks, Regional Governor Ivan Fedorov said. A total of 21 people were hurt.
Reuters could not independently verify the accounts.
The capital Kyiv was observing a day of mourning, a day after a Russian missile and drone attack killed at least 30 people in the deadliest strike on the city this year.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Oleksandr Kozhukhar; editing by Philippa Fletcher, Rod Nickel)
Comments