Kiev/Moscow, July 12, (dpa/GNA) – Five people were killed by Russian glide bombs in the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy on Saturday.
Among the victims was a 13-year-old girl, Mayor Artem Kobzar said in a video posted on Telegram. Sumy military governor Oleh Hryhorov later said the number of injured has risen to 30, with five severely hurt, adding that a bus stop had been hit.
The footage posted by Mayor Kobzar showed a bomb crater in a road and a torn-up minibus in a residential area. Local authorities have warned of further attacks. Russia has repeatedly deployed glide bombs against Ukraine since launching the full-scale invasion more than four years ago.
They are dropped by planes far beyond the frontline and glide several kilometres towards their target. Even though they are guided, glide bombs often hit civilian objects.
During the war, Russia illegally annexed the four Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhya, Donetsk and Luhansk, despite not fully controlling all of them. Russian troops also occupy strips of land in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions, which border Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin said last year that the plan is to create a buffer zone to protect the Russian population from Ukrainian attacks.
While Russian territorial gains in the region are minimal, the operation has further increased the suffering of the Ukrainian civilian population.
GNA