Casualties Rise as Drone Strikes Hit Civilians in Russia and Ukraine
Drone attacks in both Russia and Ukraine killed about ten civilians, including children, prompting UNICEF to call for protection of minors and raising concerns over Black Sea shipping security.
Civilian deaths rose on Tuesday after drone strikes in Russia and Ukraine each killed roughly five people, with two of the victims in Ukraine being children, regional officials said. The incidents were reported in the Moscow region, the southern Russian resort of Arkhipo-Osipovka, and Ukrainian provinces including Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy.
UNICEF urged both sides to respect international humanitarian law, stating that attacks harming children must stop. The agency highlighted recent fatalities in Russia’s Belgorod and Krasnodar regions and Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy regions.
In Kherson, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a video he said showed a Russian drone targeting a street-vendor’s vehicle, injuring the vendor’s back, legs and arms. Zelenskyy said the footage demonstrated Russia’s “madness” and alleged abuse of civilians.
Russian authorities reported a drone strike on the Black Sea resort of Arkhipo-Osipovka that killed seven people, including four children, and left 58 injured, with 21 hospitalized. Video of the attack showed a drone hitting a crowded beach.
Ukrainian drones also struck near Moscow and St. Petersburg, killing five and wounding ten in the Chekhov district and damaging a Wildberries warehouse in the Leningrad region. Ukrainian commander Robert Brovdi said 15 Wildberries warehouses had been targeted in recent weeks.
Russia claimed to have hit Ukrainian ports and vessels carrying military cargo in the Black Sea, including facilities in Chornomorsk, Mykolaiv and Pivdennyi. Turkey warned that such attacks threaten merchant shipping and global food supplies, as grain and fertilizer shipments pass through the region.
Additional Russian glide-bomb attacks in Ukraine killed an 89-year-old woman in Mykolaiv, two girls and an elderly woman in Sumy, and caused injuries in Kharkiv, Kramatorsk and other towns. Local officials urged residents near the front lines to evacuate.
"Attacks that kill and injure children must stop," UNICEF said in a statement.
"The world must see every piece of evidence that Russia has gone mad and that its soldiers take pleasure in killing and abusing civilians," Zelenskyy said.