11 killed in latest attacks between Ukraine and Russia

Ukrainian forces have attacked tourist resorts in the partly Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region, killing eight people, Moscow-installed officials said, while authorities in Ukraine’s Sumy region said a Russian drone strike had killed three people.

Two children were among the eight killed in the attack on the resorts, said Yevgeny Balitsky, the Kremlin-installed regional head, adding that 14 people were wounded.

Ukraine did not immediately comment on the attack.

Sumy regional head Oleh Hryhorov said on Saturday that three people were killed when a large fire broke out after a Russian drone struck a “civilian facility”, adding that the victims were drivers for private Ukrainian postal and courier service Nova Poshta.

Russia’s defence ministry said it attacked a “storage and launch site” for Ukrainian drones in the Sumy region.

In Zaporizhzhia, in south-eastern Ukraine, a Russian drone attack late on Friday hit a shopping centre, causing a fire that spread over a 500-square-metre area and injuring several people, regional head Ivan Fedorov said.

A major Russian attack on Friday on a site hosting a defence industry event near Kyiv killed at least 10 people and wounded nearly 100 others.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in his evening address on Friday that intelligence assessments indicated that Russia was preparing missiles for a large attack, saying there were indications that this could happen in the next 48 hours.

On Saturday, Romania’s defence ministry said its forces “safely shot down” a drone that breached its air space in an “unpopulated area” near the Ukrainian border.

The drone was “shot down by a Romanian pilot from an F-16 aircraft,” President Nicușor Dan said.

Saturday’s interception came after a drone was shot down around Padina, north east of the Romanian capital Bucharest, on Friday.

A series of drone incursions by Russia and Ukraine have hit Romania and other Nato members since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In June, a Ukrainian maritime drone exploded at the Black Sea port of Constanta, while three other sea drones exploded outside the port. No one was hurt.

A Russian drone that was part of an attack on Ukraine in May went astray and struck an apartment building in eastern Romania, injuring two people.