Ukraine announced on Wednesday (1) that Russia bombed more than 100 locations in the last 24 hours, the highest number in just one attack this year. Since the start of the offensive in February 2022, Russian forces have fired millions of artillery shells at Ukrainian cities and villages near the battlefronts, leaving the east of the country in ruins.
“In the last 24 hours, the enemy bombed 118 locations in 10 regions,” Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klimenko wrote on social media. “This is the largest number of cities and towns to have been attacked since the beginning of the year,” he added. Russian President Vladimir Putin had already said he would intensify attacks. He even promoted a simulation of a massive nuclear attack.
A Russian attack on an oil refinery in Kremenchuk (center of the country) caused no casualties, but required the presence of over 100 firefighters to control the fire, according to Klimenko. Ukraine and its Western allies fear that Russia will intensify attacks on facilities in the country’s energy sector before the harsh winter (northern hemisphere, summer in Brazil), as happened last year.
Nighttime bombings caused one death in the Kharkiv region (northeast) and another fatality in the Kherson region (south), local authorities reported. A third person died and four were injured in a Russian drone attack in Nikopol, in the south of the country.
The Ukrainian Air Force announced that it shot down 18 of 20 Russian drones launched overnight. The Russian Defense Ministry said it shot down two Ukrainian drones in the Bryansk and Kursk regions, close to the border. (AFP)
