WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian shelling kills five in southern, eastern Ukraine

Russian shelling on Thursday killed three women in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson and two people in eastern Donetsk region, local officials said.

Prosecutors said the three women were killed on a street in Kherson, a town abandoned by Russian troops late last year along with other settlements on the west bank of the Dnipro River. Russian forces routinely shell Kherson and nearby areas from positions on the river's east bank.

Prosecutors in Donetsk region in the east said two people died when Russian forces shelled Krasnohorivka, west of the Russian-held city of Donetsk and near the long-contested town of Maryinka.

In Kostyantynivka, west of the town of Bakhmut, in Russian hands since May, three people were injured when Russian forces launched two air strikes within an hour, prosecutors said.

Reuters could not independently verify any of the accounts of military activity.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian drone strike causes blackout in Russia – governor

Russian air defense systems have engaged ten hostile targets over the Kursk region, the Defense Ministry said on Friday morning. However, one of the incoming drones managed to hit an electrical substation causing a blackout, according to governor Roman Starovoyt.

“A Ukrainian drone dropped two explosive devices on a substation,”Starovoyt wrote on Telegram at 5:00am local time, shortly after warning about “air defense systems activity in the Kursk region.”

One of the transformers caught fire as a result of the attack, causing a blackout that affected five settlements and a hospital, according to the official. There were no reports of any injuries.

The governor asked residents to “remain calm,” adding that firefighters were sent to tackle the blaze and that power would be restored “as soon as it becomes safe.”

The Russian military said it intercepted a total of ten drones over the Kursk region, and another one in Kaluga, thwarting yet “another attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack using aircraft-type UAVs.”

The Russian border regions of Kursk, Bryansk and Belgorod, as well as Crimea and Moscow, have been frequently targeted by drones since Moscow launched its military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. Russian officials have also accused Kiev of plotting acts of sabotage targeting the country’s major infrastructure sites, including nuclear power plants.

Reuters/RT