蜜桃交友

By Stefan J. Bos

Authorities say Russian drone and bomb attacks caused devastation in Ukraine's eastern Sumy and Donetsk regions, where several people lost their lives.

Local governor Vadym Filashkin said Russians dropped a bomb on Myrnohrad town in the Donetsk region, killing two and injuring five people.

The Sumy regional military administration said a Russian drone hit an apartment block overnight, and one body was pulled out from under the rubble.

However, rescuers continued working at the site where at least eight people were injured, and more may stay under the collapsed building constructions.

The administration said 30 apartments of a five-story residential building were damaged, 15 of them primarily destroyed.

Earlier on Tuesday, two apartment buildings caught fire as a result of a Russian missile attack in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih. The death toll there rose to five people on Wednesday, local authorities said, with at least 50 more injured.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who was born and raised in the city, praised rescue teams and vowed Russia would be held accountable.

Entering Russia

Russia already experienced counterattacks with the Freedom of Russia Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps groups, comprised of Russians fighting for Ukraine, claiming Tuesday that they were "on the attack" inside Russia and had taken control of a border village.

Ukrainian and Russian sources said the groups had entered Russia's Belgorod and Kursk regions in armored vehicles backed by mortar and artillery fire.

However, Russia's Defense Ministry claimed it had "thwarted" attacks in border regions by "Ukrainian terrorist groups," which they said caused heavy losses.

Moscow authorities also said Ukrainian drones targeted sites in nine Russian regions in what was thought to be Kyiv's largest drone assault on Russia since the start of the war.

One of the targets in the drone attacks was reportedly a government building in Belgorod, where the mayor said the strike had killed four people. Russia also lost a military transport plane that is believed to have killed 15 people in the west of the country, though the reason was said to have been an engine fire.

Kyiv says the attacks are the result of Russia's full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, which began more than two years ago.

European lawmakers on Wednesday also stepped up calls for the return of some 20,000 Ukrainian children who they say have been forcibly moved to Russia or its ally Belarus.

Aide attacked

Yet criticizing the war can be dangerous, especially for the aide of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

The aid, Leonid Volkov, said Wednesday he had been attacked with a hammer and tear gas outside his home in Lithuania.

He said he and other exiles feared for their lives at a time when Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing for upcoming presidential elections.

Lithuanian president Gitanas Nauseda said the attack on Volkov was pre-planned and tied in with other "Russian provocations" against the Baltic nation.