Four killed, 53 injured in Russian drone, missile attack on Ukraine
Ukrainian firefighters at work Friday in a Kyiv apartment building hit by an attack drone during a massive overnight raid that killed four people, three of them emergency workers. Photo by Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA-EFE
June 6 (UPI) -- At least four people were killed and 53 injured in Ukraine after Russia launched almost 500 drones and ballistic missiles as the country came under sustained airborne assault for the second night in a row.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said four people were killed and 20 injured after civilian and industrial infrastructure was targeted in six districts of the capital, but that search and rescue operations at multiple sites were continuing Friday morning, he wrote in a social media update.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said in a Telegram post that three of the fatalities were emergency service staff killed as they worked under fire while the attack on Kyiv was ongoing, and that nine other State Emergency Service workers had been injured, some of them seriously.
Kyiv City Military Administration said the combined missile and drone attack caused widespread damage, both from direct hits and debris from downed drones, with subway tracks and trains sustaining damage and a residential tower block and an educational institution set ablaze.
The authority said firefighters were continuing to battle a major blaze at a metal warehouse in Solomianskyi district in the west of the city.
In Ternopil province, 260 miles southwest of Kyiv, 10 people were injured, including five emergency workers hurt while battling a large fire, according to the regional governor.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said almost all of Ukraine had come under attack, including the Khmelnytskyi, Lviv, Volyn, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Poltava and Sumy regions.
"Some of the missiles and drones were shot down. I thank our warriors for their defense. But unfortunately, not all were intercepted," he wrote on X.
The State Emergency Service in the northwestern province of Volyn said 15 people were injured when a 9-story apartment building in Lutsk, the capital, was struck. In a social media update, the SES said damage to residential and administrative buildings and manufacturing facilities had been extensive.
Kherson Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin reported 10 people injured after Russian forces, which occupy part of the province, opened fire with artillery on residential districts and civil infrastructure in the Ukrainian zone.
Four people were also hurt in Chernihiv, three in Poltava, three in Kharkiv and two in Sumy.
Ivan Federov, governor of Zaporizhzhia province, which is under partial Russian occupation, said on social media that the Ukrainian part of the province had come under heavy attack from airstrikes, artillery and drones, damaging infrastructure and homes, but there had been no deaths or injuries.
However, Ukraine also launched its own attacks into Russia, claiming to have successfully carried out "a preemptive strike, hitting enemy airfields and other important military facilities."
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on social media that drones had carried out a second successful attack overnight on Russian aircraft at Engels airfield in the Saratov region, following a strike at the weekend.
It also claimed Diaghilev airfield in the Ryazan region, where air tankers and escort fighters used to carry out missile strikes against Ukraine were based, was also hit.
Russia's state-run TASS news agency said civilian and industrial targets in Moscow and 11 other regions, including Saratov and Ryazan, were targeted by drones and missiles, injuring at least six people.
The defense ministry said air defenses shot down or disabled 174 drones and three guided missiles, but no mention was made of damage to military bases.
TASS confirmed a blaze in Engels in the Saratov region from a drone strike, but said it was at an industrial facility.
The agency said the injuries occurred in the city of Michurinsk, 250 miles southeast of Moscow, where three people were hurt, two of them hospitalized, and in the Tula region, 120 miles south of Moscow, where three people were being treated in the hospital.
Passengers in cars that were struck by debris from drones downed in Kaluga Region sustained minor injuries, the regional governor said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Ukraine hopes for Trump-Zelensky meeting in Canada during G7
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy intends to hold a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump during the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Canada, Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak said on air on June 6. The summit is scheduled to take place from June 15 to 17 in Kananaskis, Alberta. Yermak said the Ukrainian delegation's recent trip to Washington was aimed in part at arranging the high-level meeting between Zelensky and Trump. The Ukrainian delegation, led by First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko, arrived in the U.S. on the morning of June 3. The delegation included senior officials from the Defense Ministry and the Presidential Office. During their visit, the Ukrainian officials are expected to engage with American counterparts on a wide range of critical issues, including ongoing negotiations in Istanbul, sanctions policy against Russia, and continued support for Ukraine amid Russia's full-scale war. Following the latest round of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia on June 2, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested that Turkey plans to facilitate a meeting between the leaders of Russia and Ukraine in either Ankara or Istanbul. Speaking to reporters on the same day, Zelensky expressed readiness to take part in such talks. "I had a conversation with President Erdoğan of Turkey. And indeed, he sent a signal, asking how I would feel about a meeting of four leaders: himself, the President of the United States, Putin, and me. I told him that I support a meeting at the level of leaders, because I have the impression that there will be no ceasefire without our meeting," Zelensky said during an online press conference attended by the Kyiv Independent. We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Zelenskyy says Russian drivers 'didn't know' about role in audacious drone attack
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian truck drivers who transported what would become platforms for Ukraine's large-scale surprise drone attack on Russian warplanes a week ago did so unwittingly. In the attack, drones used to conduct the attack were hidden in "mobile houses" that had retractable roofs, which were loaded on the trucks and then opened remotely to conduct the operation, a source told ABC News. "They didn't know anything," Zelenskyy told Martha Raddatz in an exclusive interview airing Sunday on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." "They just did their job," he said. MORE: Zelenskyy rejects Trump's playground characterization of Ukraine war, calling Putin 'murderer' Zelenskyy said the drivers were unaware the mobile cottages and other containers they transported were clandestinely equipped with drones that would assault Russian airfields and damage billions of dollars of military hardware. Ukraine has said it damaged over 40 Russian bombers in the attacks, amounting to about a third of Russia's strategic bomber fleet. MORE: Aftermath of Ukraine drone strike on Russian airfields shown in satellite imagery The Ukrainian president also told Raddatz that the nation's secret services "used only our weapon[s]" and did not deploy equipment originating in an ally's arsenal. "I wanted very much to use only what we produce and to have the separation [be] very clear," Zelenskyy said.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
How the US could be vulnerable to the same kind of drone swarm attack Ukraine unleashed on Russia's bomber fleet
Ukraine's shock drone strike on Russia's strategic bomber fleet this week has generals and analysts taking a new look at threats to high-value United States aircraft at bases in the homeland and abroad – and the situation is worrisome. 'It's an eyebrow-raising moment,' Gen. David Allvin, the US Air Force chief of staff, said at a defense conference in Washington on Tuesday, adding that the US is vulnerable to similar attacks. 'There is no sanctuary even in the US homeland – particularly given that our bases back home are essentially completely unhardened,' Thomas Shugart, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), told CNN. By 'unhardened,' Shugart means there aren't enough shelters in which US warplanes can be parked that are tough enough to protect them from airstrikes, be it from drones or missiles. Ukrainian military officials said 41 Russian aircraft were hit in last Sunday's attacks, including strategic bombers and surveillance planes, with some destroyed and others damaged. Later analysis shows at least 12 planes destroyed or damaged, and reviews of satellite imagery were continuing. The Ukrainian operation used drones smuggled into Russian territory, hidden in wooden mobile houses atop trucks and driven close to four Russian air bases, according to Ukrainian sources. Once near the bases, the roofs of the mobile houses were remotely opened, and the drones deployed to launch their strikes. The Russian planes were sitting uncovered on the tarmac at the bases, much as US warplanes are at facilities at home and abroad. 'We are pretty vulnerable,' retired US Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Tuesday. 'We've got a lot of high-value assets that are extraordinarily expensive,' McChrystal said. The Ukrainians said their attacks destroyed $7 billion worth of Russian aircraft. By comparison, a single US Air Force B-2 bomber costs $2 billion. And the US has only 20 of them. Shugart co-authored a report for the Hudson Institute in January highlighting the threat to US military installations from China in the event of any conflict between the superpowers. 'People's Liberation Army (PLA) strike forces of aircraft, ground-based missile launchers, surface and subsurface vessels, and special forces can attack US aircraft and their supporting systems at airfields globally, including in the continental United States,' Shugart and fellow author Timothy Walton wrote. War game simulations and analyses show 'the overwhelming majority of US aircraft losses would likely occur on the ground at airfields (and that the losses could be ruinous),' Shugart and Walton wrote. A report from Air and Space Forces magazine last year pointed out that Anderson Air Force Base on the Pacific island of Guam – perhaps the US' most important air facility in the Pacific – which has hosted rotations of those $2 billion B-2 bombers, as well as B-1 and B-52 bombers, has no hardened shelters. Allvin, the USAF chief of staff, admitted the problem on Tuesday. 'Right now, I don't think it's where we need to be,' Allvin told a conference of the CNAS. McChrystal said the US must look at how to protect its bases and the aircraft on them but also how it monitors the areas around those facilities. 'It widens the spectrum of the threats you've got to deal with,' McChrystal said. But all that costs money, and Allvin said that presents the US with a budget dilemma. Does it spend defense dollars on hardened shelters and ways to stop drones and missiles from attacking US bases, or does it use more resources on offensive weapons that take the fight to the enemy? 'If all we are doing is playing defense and can't shoot back, then that's not a good use of our money,' Allvin told the CNAS conference. 'We've always known that hardening our bases is something we needed to do,' Allvin said, but other items have been given budget priority. Hardened aircraft shelters aren't flashy and are unlikely to generate the headlines of other defense projects, including planes like the new B-21 bombers, each of which is expected to cost around $700 million. And US President Donald Trump said recently the Air Force will build a new stealth fighter, the F-47, with an initial cost of $300 million per aircraft. 'The F-47 is an amazing aircraft, but it's going to die on the ground if we don't protect it,' Allvin said. Meanwhile, a hardened shelter costs around $30 million, according to Shugart and Walton. Last month Trump revealed another form of air defense for the US mainland, the Golden Dome missile shield, expected to cost at least $175 billion. Despite the huge price tag, it's designed to counter long-range threats, like intercontinental ballistic missiles fired from a different hemisphere. In Russia's case, the vastness of its territory was seen as a strength in its war with Ukraine. One of the air bases hit in Ukraine's Operation 'Spiderweb' was closer to Tokyo than Kyiv. But now Russia's size is a weakness, writes David Kirichenko on the Ukraine Watch blog of the Atlantic Council. Every border crossing may be an infiltration point; every cargo container on every highway or rail line must be treated with suspicion. 'This is a logistical nightmare,' Kirichenko said. And there is a direct analogy to the United States. US Air Force bomber bases are usually well inland, but accessible to vehicles large and small. For instance, all 20 B-2 bombers are stationed at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. It's about 600 miles from the nearest coastline, the Gulf of Mexico, but only about 25 miles south of Interstate 70, one of the main east-west traffic arteries in the US, with thousands of commercial vehicles passing by daily. Dyess Air Force Base in Texas, one of the homes of US B-1 bombers, sits just south of another major east-west commercial artery, Interstate 20. 'Think of all the containers and illegal entrants inside our borders,' said Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the US Pacific Command's Joint Intelligence Center. 'That connection will trigger alarm in some US circles,' he said. Meanwhile, in the Pacific, even better US offensive firepower, like Gen. Allvin would like to have, might not be enough in the event of a conflict with China. That's because the PLA has made a concerted effort to protect its aircraft during its massive military buildup under leader Xi Jinping, according to the Hudson Institute report. China has more than 650 hardened aircraft shelters at airfields within 1,150 miles of the Taiwan Strait, the report says. But Shugart and Walton argue the best move Washington could make would be to make Beijing build more – by improving US strike capabilities in Asia. 'In response the… PLA would likely continue to spend funds on additional costly passive and active defense measures and in turn would have less to devote to alternative investments, including strike and other power projection capabilities,' they said.
