Russia fired almost 50 Shahed drones at targets in Ukraine and shelled a train station where more than 100 civilians were gathered to catch a train to Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday.
At least five people were killed and power was knocked out in most of the southern city of Kherson.
The aerial barrage came a day after Ukrainian warplanes damaged a Russian ship moored in the Black Sea off Crimea as soldiers on both sides struggle to make much progress along the front line of the 22-month war.
A Russian warship in a Crimean port city has been struck by Ukraine. Russia says it was only damaged, while Ukraine claims it was destroyed.
Overnight, Kremlin forces launched an artillery and drone bombardment of the Kherson region as some 140 civilians were waiting for a train at the region’s capital city of the same name, according to Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko. One police officer was killed and two others were wounded. Two civilians also were killed.
More than 100 people waiting for the train at the time of the attack arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday morning, national rail operator Ukrzaliznytsia said.
Much of Kherson without power
The attack on the Kherson region and its capital hit residential areas and a mall as well as the power grid, leaving around 70 per cent of households in Kherson city without electricity amid the cold, regional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said.
It was not immediately possible to estimate when power might be restored, he said.
Targeting energy infrastructure was also a Russian tactic last winter.
In Odesa, another major city in southern Ukraine, the drone assault killed two people and wounded three, including a 17-year-old male, regional Gov. Oleh Kiper said.
Ukraine’s air force said it intercepted 32 of the 46 drones that Russia fired overnight.
No major Russian gains from fallen city: think-tank
A Western military assessment reckoned Russia’s capture this week of a city in Eastern Ukraine would not provide it with a springboard for major battlefield gains.
Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s commanded in chief, said Tuesday his troops had retreated to the northern outskirts of the city of Marinka, which is about 20 kilometres west of Donetsk, the largest city in Russian-held territory.
Zaluzhnyi said his troops had held Marinka for almost two years, but Russians “were destroying it street by street, house by house.”
The Institute for the Study of War, a think-tank, said “Russian forces are highly unlikely to make rapid operational advances from Marinka.”
But it noted “localized Russian offensive operations are still placing pressure on Ukrainian forces in many places along the front in Eastern Ukraine.”