KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — At least two people were killed in a Russian attack in Ukraine, officials said Sunday, as Ukrainian forces stormed a drone factory in southwestern Russia.
A 16-year-old boy was killed and four others wounded in a “massive” drone attack overnight in Chernihiv, northern Ukraine, according to the head of the city’s military administration.
Rescuers found the teenager’s body while clearing the debris, Dmytro Bryzinski reported on Telegram on Sunday morning. He said that three women and one man were also injured in the drone attack. He said that many houses were set on fire.
Russian drones also attacked the southern city of Kherson on Sunday, local officials said.
According to Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the regional administration, one person was injured when the drone hit a van moving through the city center. A second person injured in the explosion was hospitalized, regional officials said.
According to the Air Force of Ukraine, Russia launched 236 drones into Ukrainian territory on Sunday night. Out of them, 203 drones were shot down and 32 were targeted at 18 separate locations.
Kiev says it attacked a Russian drone factory
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s General Staff reported that Ukraine struck a drone factory in the city of Taganrog. The site is located in southwestern Russia, about 55 kilometers (35 mi) from Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine.
According to the military, Ukrainian drones opened fire at the Atlant Aero factory, which designs and manufactures strike and reconnaissance drones, as well as components for more powerful UAVs that can carry guided bombs weighing up to 250 kilograms (550 pounds).
Ukraine’s navy says it attacked a drone factory in southern Russia using a home-made Neptune cruise missile.
“This defense enterprise is an important part of the Russian military-industrial complex, where drones are developed and manufactured,” the navy said in an online post.
It also posted photos showing a large cloud of smoke over the city, which it said was the effect of the strike.
According to Russian regional governor Yuri Slusser, three people were injured in a nighttime airstrike on commercial infrastructure in Taganrog. He did not say which facility was hit but said a warehouse was set on fire after the strike.
Taganrog Mayor Svetlana Kambulova said the strike had damaged “business institutions” in the city, as well as a vocational school and several cars.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down 274 Ukrainian drones overnight, as well as guided aerial bombs and Neptune cruise missiles. The ministry did not disclose how many targets were hit.
Ukraine has launched an investigation into the mass shooting in the capital
Ukraine’s Interior Ministry on Sunday launched an official investigation into a mass shooting in Kiev the day before that left six people dead and at least 14 others injured.
A gunman armed with an automatic weapon killed six people inside a supermarket in Ukraine’s capital with hostages before turning the gun on himself before being shot dead by police, authorities said.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said the attacker’s mental state was “obviously unstable”.
The name of the 58-year-old gunman has not been released, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that he was born in Russia. Authorities worked to piece together a motive for the violence.
Several police officers were suspended for not responding properly in the early stages of the shooting. Klimenko, the interior minister, described their behavior as “shameful and unworthy” of their role as police officers.
He said there are no plans to tighten gun ownership laws, arguing that guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens help defend the country against Russia.
Mass shootings — unheard of in wartime Kiev since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — ran for safety in the city’s busy central district, leaving bodies on crowded streets, outside an apartment block and a nearby shopping center.
An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw the bodies of victims in the street covered with emergency blankets.
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