Six dead following large-scale Russian missile strikes across Ukraine

Six people were killed after a night of widespread air strikes and intense shelling across Ukraine, officials said Sunday, as Kyiv's military exchanged fire with Russian occupation forces.

Four more were injured following a Russian air strike in Ukraine's Kharkiv region, said the head of the local regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 70 drones and missiles from aircraft over the Caspian Sea, including Iranian-made, Shahed-136/131 strike UAVs.

Three waves of missiles hit the Starokostiantyniv area, damaging several buildings and igniting a fire at a warehouse, said Serhiy Tyurin, deputy head of Ukraine’s Khmelnytsky region military administration.

The strike may have been intended for the city’s airfield, officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the facilities of aircraft engine manufacturer Motor Sich in the Zaporizhzhia region had also come under attack.

Ukraine also struck a major Russian port with drones earlier the same day.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned what she called a Ukrainian “terrorist attack” on a civilian vessel in the Kerch Strait.

“There can be no justification for such barbaric actions, they will not go unanswered and their authors and perpetrators will inevitably be punished,” she posted on the Telegram messaging app.

On Sunday, a Ukrainian missile hit the Chonhar bridge connecting the Russian-occupied Kherson region and northern Crimea, causing minor damage to the span’s roadway, said Vladimir Saldo, the Moscow-installed leader of the Kherson region.

He also said several more rockets had been shot down by air defense forces. The bridge, which is one of three key spans connecting the Crimean Peninsula to the mainland, was previously attacked on July 22 and July 29.

President Zelensky said a guided bomb had hit a blood transfusion center in the area’s Kupyan district late on Saturday.

“This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression,” he wrote on social media.

“Defeating terrorists is a matter of honor for everyone who values life.”Heavy shelling continued along the front line in eastern Ukraine as Kyiv continued its ongoing counteroffensive.

Elsewhere in the Kharkiv region, a 58-year-old woman was killed and a 66-year-old man was wounded after Russian shelling of the village of Podoly, an official said.