In this photo provided by Ukraine’s 24th Mechanized Brigade press service, servicemen of the 24th Mechanised Brigade fire a 2s1 self-propelled 122mm howitzer towards Russian positions near Chasiv Yar town, in Donetsk region, Ukraine, Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024. (Oleg Petrasiuk/Ukrainian 24th Mechanised Brigade via AP)
KYIV —
Ukrainian drone strikes on southern Russia killed a 9-year-old boy and set fire
to a major oil terminal, officials said Saturday, the day after Moscow launched
a massive aerial attack on its neighbour that Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy said was one of the heaviest bombardments of the country's energy
sector since Russia's full-scale invasion almost three years ago.
The boy died when a drone struck his family's home
outside Belgorod, a Russian city near the border with Ukraine, local Governor
Vyacheslav Gladkov reported on Saturday morning on the Telegram messaging app.
His mother and 7-month-old sister were hospitalised with injuries, Gladkov
said.
He posted photos of what he said was the aftermath of the
attack, showing a low-rise house with gaping holes in its roof and front wall
flanked by mounds of rubble.
Elsewhere in southern Russia, Ukrainian drones overnight
hit a major oil terminal in the Oryol region, sparking a blaze, Ukraine's
General Staff reported on Saturday. Photos published by the General Staff and
on Russian Telegram news channels showed huge plumes of smoke engulfing the
facility, backlit by an orange glow.
Oryol Governor Andrey Klychkov confirmed on Saturday that
a Ukrainian drone strike set fire to a fuel depot there. In a separate Telegram
post later that day, he said the blaze had been contained and that there were
no casualties.
The Ukrainian strikes came a day after Russia fired 93
cruise and ballistic missiles and almost 200 drones at its neighbour, further
battering Ukraine's energy infrastructure, around half of which has been
destroyed during the war. Rolling electricity blackouts are common and
widespread, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy charged Friday that
Moscow is “terrorising millions of people” with such assaults.
According to Ukraine's air force, Russia kept up its
drone attacks on Saturday, launching 132 of the munitions across Ukrainian
territory. Fifty-eight drones were shot down and a further 72 veered off
course, likely due to electronic jamming, according to the air force's online
statement.
The Russian Defence Ministry on Friday said the Russian
military used long-range precision missiles and drones on “critically important
fuel and energy facilities in Ukraine that ensure the functioning of the
military industrial complex”.
The strike was in retaliation for Wednesday's Ukrainian
attack using US-supplied the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMs, on a
Russian air base, it said.
Kyiv's Western allies have provided Ukraine with air
defence systems to help it protect critical infrastructure, but Russia has
sought to overwhelm the air defences with combined strikes involving large
numbers of missiles and drones called “swarms”.
Russia has held the initiative this year as its military
has steadily rammed through Ukrainian defences in the east in a series of slow
but steady offensives.
But uncertainty surrounds how the war might unfold next
year. US President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office next month, has vowed
to end the war and has thrown into doubt whether vital US military support for
Kyiv will continue.
