Father and son, 4, killed in Russia attack on Ukraine’s Kyiv region ‘with North Korea missile’
Two people were killed, including a four-year old boy, in a Russian drone and missile barrage on the Kyiv region overnight into Sunday, while in Russia the regional governor of Kursk said 13 people were wounded when a Ukrainian missile shot down by Russian air defences fell on a residential building.
The bodies of a 35-year old man and his son were found under rubble after fragments of missiles fell on a residential area in Kyiv’s suburban Brovary district, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.
Russian forces likely used a North Korean missile during the strike, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday.
“According to preliminary information, the Russians used a North Korean missile in this attack, yet another deliberate terrorist strike against Ukraine,” he wrote on social media.
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The attacks come as Ukraine’s surprise military incursion into Russia’s Kursk border region enters its sixth day. The border raid, indirectly acknowledged by Zelensky for the first time on Saturday, is unprecedented for its use of Ukrainian military units on Russian soil.
Thousands of troops are taking part, aiming to destabilise Russia by showing up its weaknesses, a top Ukrainian official told Agence France-Presse.
“We are on the offensive. The aim is to stretch the positions of the enemy, to inflict maximum losses and to destabilise the situation in Russia as they are unable to protect their own border,” the security official said on condition of anonymity.
The Russian army had said about 1,000 Ukrainian troops were deployed in the cross-border incursion which began on Tuesday and appeared to catch the Kremlin off guard, allowing Ukrainian forces to penetrate Russian defensive lines.
Asked whether the 1,000 figure was right, the official said: “It is a lot more … Thousands”.
Regarding Sunday’s fatal attack on the Kyiv area, Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said it was the second time this month the capital was targeted.
Popko said ballistic missiles did not reach the city but that suburbs took the hit, while drones aiming for the capital were shot down.
In Russia, the Defence Ministry said 35 drones were shot down overnight over the Kursk, Voronezh, Belgorod, Bryansk and Oryol regions.
The ministry said its troops fired on Ukrainian soldiers in the western Kursk region in a bid to repel the first foreign incursion on its territory since World War II.
Ukraine has not commented on the Sunday drone attacks inside Russia. But it comes as Ukraine has increased the pace of similar drone attacks largely targeting military infrastructure and oil depots in recent weeks.
Additional reporting by Reuters, Bloomberg, Agence France-Presse
