15 killed in latest attacks between Ukraine and Russia

Ukrainian attacks on holiday camps in the partly Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region have killed 12 people, Moscow-installed officials said, while authorities in Ukraine’s north-eastern Sumy region said a Russian drone strike killed three people.

The strikes followed a major Russian attack on Friday near Kyiv that killed at least 10 people and wounded around 100 others, part of a relentless cycle of tit-for-tat attacks that dims the potential of reaching a diplomatic end to Russia’s more than four-year-old invasion of its neighbour.

The exchange comes as Ukraine’s successful drome attacks have stalled the Russian army’s advances in an expanded campaign by Kyiv inside Russia that has been hitting high-profile targets, causing fuel shortages and piling pressure on Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Four children were among 12 people killed in the attack on the resorts in Zaporizhzhia, Yevgeny Balitsky, the Kremlin-installed regional head, said, adding that 19 others were wounded.

Ukraine did not immediately comment.

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.