Russia and Ukraine said they repelled several airstrikes late Tuesday and early Wednesday, as intensified attacks on border regions forced the evacuation of civilians on both sides.
Russian officials said air defense systems destroyed missiles and drones launched by Ukraine in the Belgorod, Kursk and Voronezh regions bordering Ukraine. Drones were also shot down deep inside Russia, in the Saratov region.
Meanwhile, intense Russian shelling in the Sumy region on Ukraine's northeastern border prompted Kiev to order the evacuation of civilians.
The Russian Defense Ministry, posting on the messaging app Telegram, said air defense units had intercepted a dozen rockets and missiles over the Belgorod region at 10pm on Tuesday. Shortly afterwards, the government said it had intercepted two more missiles, including a US-made Patriot, over the nearby Kursk region.
Earlier on Wednesday, the governor of the Saratov region, Roman Busargin, said that two drones launched by Ukraine were intercepted near the city of Engels. Russia has a strategic bomber military base near the city.
There were no reported casualties or major damage in any of the attacks launched by Ukraine.
Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said late on Tuesday that 1,200 children from the most at-risk areas would be temporarily transported by the end of the week to other Russian regions. He added that around 9,000 people asked to be evacuated.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his evening video speech, criticized Russia's “constant” attacks on the Sumy region, in northeastern Ukraine.
“Since the beginning of the month, Russian aviation has dropped almost 200 guided bombs on communities in the Sumy region,” he said. “Villages, cities, civil infrastructure”.
Sumy authorities said there were 30 cases of shelling during the day on Tuesday. One person was killed in the border community of Velyka Pysarivka, the focal point of an evacuation that began last week.
Around 200 people were evacuated from threatened areas near Velyka Pysarivka last week, local Ukrainian officials said.
Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia started with its large-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago and that has since killed thousands of people and displaced millions.
The development and use of drones and other aerial weapons has increasingly shifted conflict from the battlefield to air strikes against each side's military, energy and transportation infrastructure.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski, Maria Starkova and Lidia Kelly)
Source: CNN Brasil
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