More than 100 Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russia on Sunday, sparking a wildfire and setting a residential building on fire in one of the largest barrages of attacks seen over Russia since then, officials said. Moscow invaded Ukraine In February 2022.
The Russian Ministry of Defense reported this 125 drones were shot down overnight Across seven regions. The southwestern Volgograd region came under particularly heavy fire, with Russian air defenses reportedly shooting down 67 Ukrainian drones.
The governor of Russia’s Voronezh state, Alexander Gusev, said 17 drones were also seen over Russia’s Voronezh region, where falling debris damaged an apartment building and a private home. Pictures posted on social media showed flames rising from the windows of the upper floor of a high-rise building. No injuries were reported.
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian emergency service, an apartment house is seen damaged after Russia attacked the city with guided bombs overnight in Zaporizhya, Ukraine, Sunday, September 29, 2024.
Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP
The governor of the Russian Rostov region, Vasily Golubev, said that 18 more drones were reported over the Russian Rostov region, where falling debris sparked a forest fire.
He said the fire did not pose a threat to populated areas, but emergency services were struggling to extinguish the fire, which had engulfed 20 hectares (49.4 acres) of forest.
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Warnings of a Russian ground attack
Elsewhere, 16 civilians were injured in a night bombing on the city of Zaporizhia in southern Ukraine, after Ukrainian military leaders warned that Moscow may be preparing for a new military attack in the country. South of the country.
The city was targeted by Russian guided bombs in 10 separate attacks that destroyed a high-rise building and several residential homes, regional governor Ivan Fedorov wrote on his official Telegram channel. He added that it was possible that more people were still trapped under the rubble.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also said that the Zaporizhia attack damaged the city’s transport lines. “Today, Russia bombed the city of Zaporizhia with aerial bombs. Ordinary residential buildings were damaged, and the entrance to one of the buildings was destroyed. The city’s infrastructure and railways were also damaged,” Zelensky said in press statements. Share on X.
The Ukrainian leader appeared on Sunday at a memorial service to mark the 83rd anniversary of the Babin Yar massacre, one of the most famous mass killings of World War II.
Babin Yar, a valley in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, is the place where nearly 34,000 Jews were murdered within 48 hours in 1941 while the city was under Nazi occupation.
“Bapin Yar is living proof of the atrocities that regimes can commit when led by leaders who rely on intimidation and violence. They are no different at any time,” Zelensky said in a statement. But the world’s response must be different. This is the lesson the world should have To learn it. We must protect humanity, life and justice.”
The Ukrainian army warned on Saturday that Russian forces may be preparing for offensive operations in the wider Zaporizhya region. Vladislav Voloshin, spokesman for Ukraine’s Southern Military Command, said Russia was mobilizing personnel in this direction.
The Ukrainian Air Force also reported that 22 Russian drones were launched over the country overnight. It said that 15 aircraft were shot down in the regions of Sumy, Vinnitsa, Mykolaiv and Odessa in Ukraine, and five others were destroyed using electronic defenses. The fate of the remaining two aircraft has not been determined.
& Edition 2024 The Canadian Press
