Russia launched a new series of overnight drone strikes on Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv, and the southern city of Kherson, where officials said several civilians were killed when drones struck a supermarket and a train station.
The Ukrainian Air Force Command said it destroyed 21 of the 26 Iranian-made Shahed-136/131 drones launched in the attack. The drones had been launched from Russia’s Bryansk region and from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov, it said.
The capital’s military administration said all the drones targeting Kyiv were shot down, without specifying their number. The attack was the third wave of Russian air strikes on Kyiv in six days.
The drones, however, were able to hit civilian targets in Kherson, killing three civilians at the supermarket around 11 a.m. local time, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The Health Ministry said on Facebook that one person was killed and six others were wounded in the attack on the train station.
Kherson Governor Oleksandr Prokudin announced a 58-hour curfew to begin in Kherson city at 8 p.m. on May 5.
Eight Civilians Killed During Russian Strikes In Kherson Region
Russian forces killed eight civilians in attacks on the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson on May 3, striking a hypermarket and railway station in the regional capital and hitting villages nearby, officials said.
In Dnipro, a drone hit the city administration building, the head of the regional military administration, Serhiy Lysak, said on Telegram.
“A fire broke out, but it has already been extinguished. No residents were wounded. Rescuers are still working at the site,” Lysak wrote.
Explosions were also reported on social media in the Cherkasy, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhzhya regions.
Eight Civilians Killed During Russian Strikes In Kherson Region
Russian forces killed eight civilians in attacks on the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson on May 3, striking a hypermarket and railway station in the regional capital and hitting villages nearby, officials said.
A fire broke out at a fuel depot in the Russian village of Volna near the bridge to Crimea, local governor Venyamin Kondratyev said on May 3 said on Telegram, without mentioning the cause of the fire.
In the Donetsk region, Russian forces spearheaded by Wagner mercenaries continued to launch waves of assaults over the past 24 hours on Bakhmut, which remains the focal point of Moscow’s efforts in the east.
“Russian troops focused on conducting offensive operations in the Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiyivka, and Maryinka directions carried out more than 30 attacks, Ukraine’s General Staff said in its daily report on May 3. The Russian attacks were repelled, it said.
On May 2, a Ukrainian military commander vowed not to give up Bakhmut.
With indications that the start of a long-expected Ukrainian counteroffensive is near, General Oleksandr Syrskiy, commander of the Ukrainian ground forces, underlined the importance Kyiv attaches to holding Bakhmut.
“Together with the commanders, we have made a number of necessary decisions aimed at ensuring the effective defense and inflicting maximum losses on the enemy,” Syrskiy said in remarks released after he visited troops in Bakhmut.
“We will continue, despite all the forecasts and advice, to hold Bakhmut, destroying Wagner and other most combat-capable units of the Russian army,” he said.
Ukraine still holds some parts of the city after months of fierce fighting against regular Russian troops and Wagner mercenaries.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said control of some parts of Bakhmut had changed hands recently.
“There are positions lost, and positions we are driving the enemy out of. Fierce fighting continues — as of now, the city is controlled by our armed forces,” she told a Ukrainian television channel.
It was not possible to verify the battlefield claims of either side.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the paramilitary group, said he believed Ukraine’s promised counteroffensive has begun and there has been heightened activity along the front line.
In a statement published by his press service on Telegram, Prigozhin said that the “active phase” of the counteroffensive would begin in the coming days.
