KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian glide bombs, drones and a ballistic missile smashed into cities in southern and eastern Ukraine on Monday, officials said, killing at least six civilians and injuring about 30 others.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia has recently intensified strikes that have long tormented civilian areas, in an apparent effort to unnerve Ukrainians and wear down their willingness to keep up a war that is approaching its 1,000-day milestone.
“Every day, every night, Russia commits the same terror,” Zelenskyy said in a post on the Telegram messaging app. “Except that an increasing number of civilian objects are becoming targets.”
Both Russia and Ukraine are waiting to see how Washington will change its policy on the war after Donald Trump takes office as the U.S. president in January. The U.S. is the biggest provider of military help to Ukraine, but Trump has chided the Biden administration for giving Kyiv tens of billions of dollars of aid.
The Ukrainian army intends to expand its mobile units, which are primarily tasked with shooting down drones, in the regions most frequently targeted by Russian strikes, Zelenskyy said on Telegram.
He also said that Ukraine is working on producing its own glide bombs as part of a domestic missile program. Russian glide bombs have significantly impacted the battlefield, as their destructive power reduces settlements to rubble and makes it increasingly difficult for Ukrainian forces to hold their defensive fortifications.
Ukrainian forces are being slowly pushed backward in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russia is bringing its greater military might to bear. Zelenskyy said Ukraine would conduct a “substantial reinforcement” in areas near the Donetsk settlements of Kurakhove and Pokrovsk, where Ukraine’s army is in danger of being overrun.
Zelenskyy added that Ukraine is holding its positions in Russia’s Kursk border region, where Western and Ukrainian officials say Russia is being helped by thousands of newly arrived North Korean troops. He said Russia has deployed some 50,000 troops to Kursk.
Also in Donetsk, near the recently captured settlement of Hirnyk, the Russians have damaged a dam at the Kurakhove reservoir, regional Gov. Vadym Filashkin said.
The local water level in the Vovcha River has risen by 1.2 meters, though no homes have been affected, and possible flooding threatens both the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions, he said.
“We continue to monitor the water level in the river and are prepared for any developments,” Filashkin said.
The development revived memories of the collapse of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine in June 2023, killing hundreds of people. An Associated Press investigation found the collapse was likely caused by Russian forces.
The major cities struck Monday by Russia are close to the approximately 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line.
Russian drones hammered the southern city of Mykolaiv, killing five people and injuring a 45-year-old woman, local authorities said. Around two dozen people sought psychological help following the attack that damaged houses and stores, officials said.
Mykolaiv, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) northwest of the front line in the Kherson region, frequently comes under Russian attack.
An overnight attack on Zaporizhzhia, also in the south, with three powerful glide bombs killed one person and injured 21, including a 4-year-old boy, Ukraine’s National Police said. The strikes partially destroyed a two-story apartment building and damaged a dormitory.
A five-story apartment building in Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy’s hometown in central Ukraine, was hit by a Russian ballistic missile, injuring at least eight people. The missile destroyed all five stories in one part of the building, said Oleksandr Vikul, head of Kryviy Rih Military Administration.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s intelligence agency claimed in a statement it destroyed a Russian Mi-24 assault helicopter parked at the Klin-5 airfield in the Moscow region. The claim could not be independently verified.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Monday that 17 Ukrainian drones were destroyed over the Russian regions of Kursk, Belgorod and Voronezh overnight and in the morning.
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