At least 16 people were reported killed over the past day in strikes carried out by Russian and Ukrainian forces as the conflict between the two countries enters its fifth year. Both Moscow and Kyiv have increased military actions following what was described as the deadliest summer since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which triggered the most severe war in Europe since World War II.
Kyiv reported that Russian attacks killed six civilians, including a 17-year-old girl, in the northeastern Sumy region and in Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Several others were wounded in the Ukrainian capital the day after a daytime Russian strike killed seven people. Russian forces have intensified attacks on Kyiv as the city prepares for another harsh winter amid ongoing hostilities.
Russia, for its part, stated that Ukrainian strikes killed four people in the Krasnodar and Belgorod regions. Vladimir Saldo, Moscow’s appointee leading the occupation administration in the Kherson region, said a Ukrainian drone attack on a café in Askaniya-Nova, near Crimea, resulted in the deaths of two young girls born in 2004 and 2006, along with a man. Additionally, night-time Ukrainian strikes killed three more civilians in the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region, according to Moscow-installed official Yevgeny Balitsky.
United Nations officials have expressed concern about the rising number of civilian casualties amid the conflict’s escalation. During the recent United Nations General Assembly, U.S. President Joe Biden expressed optimism about a potential resolution to the conflict, though many analysts consider a cease-fire or peace deal to be unlikely in the near term.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated on Saturday that Russia continues to escalate its attacks daily. In Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district, residents were seen cleaning up damages caused by recent Russian drone strikes as anxiety grows about future assaults. One resident, Oleksandr Gorlachov, described being woken by a call from his elderly parents amid a drone attack that badly damaged their Soviet-era apartment building. Despite the destruction, he affirmed his decision to remain in Kyiv, emphasizing the resilience of local residents despite ongoing hardship.
Meanwhile, others have been forced to flee their homes entirely. Anastasiia Grygorovych, who was displaced from Russian-occupied Gorlivka after an attack damaged her apartment, said she is considering leaving Ukraine altogether. The war has already displaced millions of people internally and abroad.
Ukraine also conducted retaliatory strikes deeper into Russian territory on Saturday. Zelensky reported Ukrainian attacks on an oil refinery in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region and a facility supplying Russian forces in the neighboring Rostov region. Kyiv has increasingly targeted locations far inside Russia this year, reaching as far as the Ural Mountains and Siberia. Zelensky called on Ukraine’s allies to impose additional sanctions on Moscow to pressure a resolution to the conflict.