KYIV, Ukraine -- Russia’s round-the-clock bombardment of targets in Ukraine killed at least seven people and wounded more than 50 others, officials said Monday. Moscow’s forces pounded apartment buildings, offices, data centres and a building of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in downtown Kyiv. The ceaseless Russian drone attacks on cities and towns aim to wear down Ukraine’s resistance and cripple the Ukrainian economy. The attacks followed a week of diplomatic efforts at the United Nations to get traction for negotiations on ending Moscow’s invasion that began four-and-a-half years ago. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov indicated Monday that the chances of making speedy headway on forging a peace settlement were bleak after recent Ukrainian attacks, including during recent parliamentary elections in Russia. “Ukraine will have to pay a price for the actions that have taken place in recent months,” Peskov told reporters. “That is happening right now.” Russian attacks leave dead and wounded across Ukraine Russian drone attacks on the Kyiv region killed four people and wounded eight, officials said. A woman was killed in a Russian strike on Kyiv’s Shevchenkivskyi district on Monday afternoon, the Kyiv city military administration said. The strike hit the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the latest cultural landmark in the capital to be damaged. Russian forces also hit a pharmaceutical company and gas stations in Kyiv. One drone struck an office center in central Dnipro during working hours Monday, killing three people and wounding at least 12, local authorities said. A Russian strike on a nine-story apartment building in the northeastern city of Kharkiv wounded 43 people, including 11 children, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. Four people, including two teenage girls, were hurt when a Russian drone struck a residential area in northern Ukraine’s Chernihiv region on Sunday evening, said Viacheslav Chaus, head of the regional military administration. Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces struck two data centres in Kyiv, as well as gas stations in the Ukrainian capital. A distribution hub belonging to the Nova Poshta postal service was struck in the southern city of Odesa, it said. The Russian military also hit a cargo ship in the Black Sea and another one in the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk, the ministry said. The strikes aim to curb Ukraine’s grain exports, though they may also create food shortages in countries that rely on Ukrainian imports. The Russian aerial attacks regularly hit civilian areas. Moscow claims it targets only military-related sites. Ukrainian army says it has advanced on the eastern front line Battlefield positions have changed little since last year, in part because swarms of drones severely restrict troop movements, but Kyiv’s forces launched a recent offensive, code-named Operation Vivaldi, on part of the 1,250-kilometre front line. Ukraine’s Third Army Corps said Monday it had recaptured another 51 square kilometres from the Russians, bringing the total to 176 square kilometres since the offensive began several months ago. The corps said that in order to break through Russian defences, it converted Soviet-era BTR-60 armoured personnel carriers into kamikaze vehicles that blew up the strongest Russian fortifications. The operation has also used ground robots to attack Russian positions. The claimed breakthroughs came in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, which the bigger Russian army has been trying in vain to conquer. Russian officials made no immediate comment on the Ukrainian claim. Russia’s Defence Ministry, meanwhile, said Russian troops captured the villages of Novovodiane in the Donetsk region and Ulanove in the northern Sumy region. It was not possible to independently verify the claims. Ukraine hits targets in southwestern Russia Zelenskyy said long-range strikes on Russian soil hit two defence plants in the Tula and Voronezh regions and oil facilities in the Krasnodar region, all in southern and western Russia. Ukraine’s long-range drones have repeatedly targeted Russian fuel depots and industrial plants that are a mainstay of Moscow’s economy and war effort. Ukrainian drone attacks overnight started fires at three infrastructure facilities in Russia’s Krasnodar region, local emergency officials said Monday, without identifying the locations. Russia’s Defence Ministry said air defences downed 254 Ukrainian drones overnight. ------ By Hanna Arhirova And Barry Hatton Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal.
