MOSCOW: The Russian air defence shot down at least four Ukrainian drones over western regions of the country on Sunday, the defence ministry said.
Three drones were shot down over Belgorod region and another over the Kursk region. There were no casualties or damage caused by the incidents, the ministry said. Drone air strikes deep inside Russia have increased since a drone was destroyed over the Kremlin in early May.
Meanwhile, Russian forces shelled the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, killing seven civilians including a baby, Ukrainian authorities said. A couple, their 23-day-old child and another man were killed in the village of Shyroka Balka, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said. The couple’s 12-year-old son was critically wounded and died in a hospital, he added. Two people were killed and one wounded in the neighbouring village of Stanislav, which Klymenko said was struck 12 times with artillery. “The terrorists will never willingly stop killing civilians,” Klymenko wrote in a Telegram post.
Three people were wounded when Russian forces shelled Kherson city in a separate attack on Sunday, said Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential administration. Ukraine’s military reclaimed the western part of the Kherson region last November but Russian troops have continued regularly shelling the area from across the Dnipro river.