Three Ukrainian civilians and Russian TV journalist killed in attacks
Officials fear the Kremlin’s forces will repeat their aerial attacks on the Ukrainian power grid this winter.
Russian shelling has killed three civilians in south-eastern regions of Ukraine, Kyiv authorities said, while a Russian television journalist was reported to have died from injuries he sustained in a Ukrainian drone attack.
Southern Ukraine’s Kherson region received eight night-time artillery barrages, killing a 42-year-old man in his apartment building and wounding another man, the Ukrainian presidential office said.
Russian shelling also killed two people in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, the office said.
It was not possible to independently verify the reports. Long-range Russian shelling that hits civilian areas has been a hallmark of Moscow’s 21-month war in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Russian state media reported that TV journalist Boris Maksudov died after being injured in a drone attack while working in southern Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region
Mr Maksudov, who worked for Russian state television channel Russia 24, was hit on Wednesday while working on a story about Ukraine allegedly shelling civilians, according to Russia’s ministry of defence.
A stepped-up Russian bombardment of civilian infrastructure has prompted Ukraine and its Western allies to beef up air defence systems.
Officials fear the Kremlin’s forces will repeat their aerial attacks on the Ukrainian power grid this winter in an effort to break the country’s will.
At a meeting on Wednesday of some 50 countries supporting Ukraine’s war effort, US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said they were placing extra emphasis on ground-based air defences, with Germany and France leading the European effort to furnish equipment.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Telegram post that “Ukraine’s sky shield is getting more powerful literally every month”.
