KYIV: At least five people were killed in a series of Russian and Ukrainian strikes on Friday, officials said, the latest casualties of the nearly three-year war.
Among the strikes was an afternoon Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Chernigiv, which left at least one person dead and damaged a residential area, according to authorities.
“Today, the enemy launched a triple rocket attack on a residential area on the outskirts of Chernigiv,” regional governor Vyacheslav Chaus said.
“Several houses were heavily damaged. There are wounded. Search and rescue operations are ongoing.”
An AFP journalist heard loud explosions in the city, which lies to the north of Kyiv, some 75 kilometres (46 miles) from the Russian border.
Ukrainian air defences down 60 Russian drones overnight, Kyiv says
The city head said four had been wounded in the strikes, according to initial reports.
Separate Russian bombardments on Friday killed a truck driver near the capital Kyiv and a pensioner in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, local officials said.
Ukrainian attacks on Russian border areas killed two, according to local governors.
One was killed by a mortar strike on a village in the Bryansk region, officials said. Another died in a drone attack near the front lines in the Kursk region, where Ukraine launched an offensive last August.
Moscow and Kyiv have escalated their aerial campaigns through the first weeks of winter, seeking to get an upper hand ahead of US President-elect Donald Trump taking office later in January.
Despite the fighting, many residents in both Russia and Ukraine still live in villages close to the front lines that regularly come under attack.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched a total of 93 drones in its latest overnight attack.
It said 60 attack drones and 26 decoy-style drones had been downed or “lost” – either shot down or disabled by electronic interceptors.
Comments