Russia and Ukraine trade attacks that kill at least 10 after deadly mall drone strike
Russian drone and missile strikes killed at least seven people in Ukraine, officials said Saturday, while a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia's Krasnodar region killed three others.
The attacks came a day after a Russian strike on a Ukrainian shopping mall that killed 16 people and wounded more than 130 others.
Moscow's forces have recently intensified their ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv, exploiting Ukraine's shortage of U.S.-made Patriot air defense interceptors.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said one person was killed and another wounded in the latest attacks when ballistic missiles hit railway infrastructure in the capital, Kyiv, overnight.
Russia's Defense Ministry said that its forces had hit a locomotive depot.
In a separate attack, local authorities said two people were killed Saturday afternoon in a Russian ballistic missile strike on the Kyiv region, which surrounds the capital.
Moscow's forces have recently intensified their ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv, exploiting Ukraine's chronic shortage of U.S.-made Patriot air defense interceptors, the sole weapon in its arsenal able to shoot down the missiles.
Russian drone strikes also killed one person overnight in the Zaporizhzhia region, local officials said Saturday, with a daytime attack killing three others and wounding 15. Zelenskyy said that three people were also wounded in an attack on a minibus in the regional capital, also called Zaporizhzhia.
In Russia's southern Krasnodar region, authorities said that two children were killed and two adults were wounded in a Ukrainian drone strike.
The latest attacks came a day after Russian drones struck a shopping center in the city of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine on Friday.
Dnipropetrovsk regional head Oleksandr Hanzha said in the early hours of Saturday that the death toll had risen to 16 and nine people remain missing after the attack, which wounded another 130.
Large-scale Russian strikes have become a regular occurrence this summer, with Friday's attacks landing just 24 hours after Russia pounded Kyiv with scores of missiles and drones in a nighttime assault that killed 16 people.
Germany's foreign minister, who is visiting Kyiv on Saturday, sharply criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for stepping up his "brutal war of aggression." The minister, Johann Wadephul, pledged more aid for Ukraine.
"Russia's brutal war of aggression ... has in no way abated," Wadephul told a press conference, AFP reported. "On the contrary, Putin has even increased the intensity of his war. He is deliberately terrorizing civilians, attacking civilian infrastructure with rockets and swarms of drones."
Wadephul, who announced an additional $58 million in humanitarian aid for Ukraine, said: "I want to emphasize once again here: the people of Ukraine have our full support. Germany stands behind Ukraine."