A series of Russian strikes across Ukraine resulted in at least three deaths on Saturday, continuing a period of intense aerial activity just 24 hours after a major assault on a shopping mall. In the Kyiv region, which surrounds the capital, local authorities confirmed that one person was killed during a Russian ballistic missile strike on Saturday afternoon. Moscow has recently increased its use of ballistic missiles against the capital, attempting to exploit Ukraine's limited supply of U.S.-made Patriot air defense interceptors, which remain the only weapons capable of neutralizing such threats.
Separately, local officials reported that a Russian drone strike overnight killed one person in a village located in the Zaporizhzhia region. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also noted that three individuals were wounded during a distinct attack on a minibus in the city of Zaporizhzhia, the regional capital. Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that its military forces had successfully struck a locomotive depot.
Casualties were also reported on the Russian side of the border. Authorities in the southern Krasnodar region stated that two children were killed and two adults were wounded as a result of a Ukrainian drone strike. These developments follow a massive Russian assault on Friday, where a nighttime barrage of missiles and drones across Ukraine killed 16 people. Regarding that incident, Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk region, reported early Saturday that the death toll had climbed to 16, with nine people still missing and 130 others wounded.
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.
