MOSCOW — Ukraine fired hundreds of drones at the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don early Monday, killing five people, including a child, according to Russian officials.The attack also set buildings ablaze, among them an apartment block and warehouses, officials said.Regional governor Yuri Slyusar said Russian air defense forces had shot down around 50 Ukrainian drones over his region while Kyivtargeted the cities of Rostov, Taganrog and four districts in the region including Chertkovsky, Tarasovsky, Sholokhovsky and Millerovsky.Eight people had been injured in Rostov, one of whom was in a critical condition, he said in a statement. In the port city of Taganrog, which lies on the Sea of Azov and is home to various industrial facilities and a grain terminal, he said an unnamed production facility had been damaged.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his forces had struck an export terminal in the western Rostov region, as well as oil facilities in the Yaroslavl and Udmurtia regions far from the front line.“Last night, our long-range sanctions were effective in the Rostov region. An export terminal approximately 250 kilometers from the front line was hit,” Zelensky said in a post on Facebook.“Deep strikes also targeted oil facilities in the Yaroslavl region and the Udmurt Republic, which is 1,300 kilometers from Ukraine’s state border,” he added.The five reported killed were all in Russia’s Rostov region bordering Ukraine.Among the dead were a married couple and a child, while the attack damaged multiple buildings including a homeless shelter, Slyusar said.”This is an irreparable loss for us all… Emergency service personnel and rescue teams are working at the scene,” he said.In the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, Ukrainian drones wounded 12 people including two children and set fire to an apartment building, regional authorities said.Russian air defences intercepted 276 drones during the night, Russia’s defence ministry said.Ukraine has escalated its retaliatory strikes on Russia in recent months, partly to pressure Moscow to the negotiating table after nearly four-and-a-half years of war.Last month was the deadliest for civilians in Ukraine since April 2022, as Moscow ramped up its long-range strikes on towns and cities across Ukraine, according to the United Nations.Russian strikes on Ukraine wounded at least four people early Monday, including an 88-year-old woman who suffered burns across much of her body, according to regional officials.
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