Russia’s defense ministry reported multiple deaths and injuries from what it called a Ukrainian Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missile attack using cluster munitions on the occupied Crimean peninsula.
Four missiles were taken down by Russian air defenses, while a fifth was struck and diverted from its trajectory before exploding over Sevastopol, Crimea’s largest city, the ministry said.
Five people were killed and more than 100 wounded from falling debris, the ministry said. The claims can’t be confirmed, and Ukrainian authorities haven’t commented. Images on social media showed beachgoers running for cover.
Two of the victims were children, according to Mikhail Razvozhayev, the local Kremlin-appointed governor. Russia has occupied the Crimean peninsula since 2014.
The incident came hours after Ukraine said it shot down two of three Russian “Kalibr” cruise missiles launched toward the capital region from the Sea of Azov on Sunday.
Explosions were heard early Sunday morning in Kyiv and its southern suburbs. Two people sustained minor injuries and at least 20 residential houses, as well as several small enterprises, were damaged by missile debris, regional governor Ruslan Kravchenko said on Telegram.
One person was killed and at least nine injured in Kharkiv in a Sunday afternoon strike. Half of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, has lost power and the city’s underground is out of service.
Sunday’s attacks followed glide-bomb strikes on Kharkiv on Saturday, which left three people dead and 56 injured, many of whom are still hospitalized.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that in June alone, Kremlin forces have used more than 2,400 guided aerial bombs against Ukraine, mostly on the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions.
“Ukraine needs the necessary resources and means to destroy the carriers of these bombs, particularly Russian combat aviation wherever it operates,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X.
Separately, Ukraine’s Navy claimed it has destroyed a training facility for Geran-2 drones in Krasnodar Krai in southern Russia, east of the annexed Crimean peninsula.
“New satellite images confirm the destruction of the Shahed-136/Geran-2 storage and preparation facilities, training buildings, control and communication points,” the Navy said on X. It said the operation was conducted together with the Ukrainian State Security Service, also known as SBU. Russia hasn’t commented.
Also on Sunday, Russia’s defense ministry said it destroyed 33 Ukrainian drones overnight. Most were in Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine and Belarus, and others in the Smolensk, Lipetsk and Tula regions.
Russian troops appear to be intensifying the tempo of their offensive operations in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, while scaling back the rate of attacks in the Kharkiv region, the Institute of Study of War said in a daily update.
That is “consistent with ISW’s assessment that Russian offensive operations in Kharkiv oblast are primarily intended to fix and distract Ukrainian forces in order to allow Russian forces to intensify elsewhere,” the U.S.-based military analysts said.
Ukraine’s general staff said the number of Russian combat assaults in the direction of Pokrovsk in Donetsk reached 44 on Saturday.
