Kiev, Sept. 9, (dpa/GNA) – At least two people have been killed and four others injured in Russian airstrikes on the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, authorities said on Sunday.
The victims were an elderly couple whose house was destroyed overnight, with a 2-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy among the injured.
The border city of Sumy has seen repeated assaults since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday morning that Russia has fired more than 800 guided aerial bombs, almost 300 drones and more than 60 missiles at his country in the past week alone.
“Terror can only be reliably stopped in one way: by striking Russian military airfields, their bases, and the logistics of Russian terror. We must achieve this,” Zelensky wrote on the social media platform X.
Zelensky stepped up his demands for his Western partners to provide Kiev with long-range weapons to destroy targets on Russian territory.
At an economic conference in northern Italy this week, Zelensky said Ukraine is “setting up underground weapons production facilities so that Ukrainian soldiers can defend themselves even when supplies from other partners are delayed.”
“We have developed our own new drones and missiles and we are ready to bring this war back to Russia so that Putin will eventually feel the pressure. The pressure to seek only one thing: Peace,” he added.
Heavy fighting continues around Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine
Russian troops have continued their relentless assault on Ukrainian defence lines near the strategically important city of Pokrovsk, located on the edge of the Donbass region.
According to a situation report from the Ukrainian General Staff on Sunday, a total of 23 Russian attacks were repelled in eastern Ukraine. “The situation in the Pokrovsk sector remains tense,” it said.
Intense fighting was also reported in nearby Kurakhove. Russian forces had attempted to undermine the Ukrainian defences there a total of 19 times, it said.
The information could not be independently verified.
Russian troops have been trying to expand their positions around the Donbass region for months.
Ukrainian drone hits fuel depot in southern Russia
Meanwhile, a drone attack by the Ukrainian armed forces hit a fuel depot, in the southern Russian region of Belgorod, causing it to burst into flames, the Russian state agency TASS reported on Sunday, citing the regional governor.
A combat drone hit the depot in the Volkonovsk district, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said, according to TASS.
“The explosion caused the tanks to catch fire,” he said.
The Ukrainian armed forces have recently started attacking logistical and military targets on Russian territory with combat drones.
In recent months, the Ukrainian defence industry has supplied the armed forces with thousands of relatively inexpensive drones in various designs and with different ranges.
GNA