According to official reports, four people have died as a result of Russian shelling of Ukraine, while the two countries have carried out drone attacks on each other, one of which set fire to a Russian oil depot.
Two people died in the partially occupied Ukrainian region of Kherson and two others were injured in the attack near the regional capital, said Governor Oleksandr Prokudin.
According to Governor Oleh Syniehubov, two more people died and 16 were injured in the northeastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv on Saturday afternoon.
An oil depot in Tsimlyansky district, deep in Russia’s southwestern Rostov region, was set ablaze in the early hours of Saturday after a Ukrainian drone attacked, the latest long-range attack by Kyiv forces on a border region.
In recent months, Ukraine has increased its air strikes on Russian soil, targeting refineries and oil terminals in an effort to slow down the Kremlin’s war machine.
Moscow’s army is advancing with all its might along the front line in eastern Ukraine. In the third year of the war, the defenders there are vulnerable due to a lack of troops and ammunition.
Rostov Governor Vasily Golubev said the drone attack caused a fire covering an area of 200 square metres, but there were no casualties.
About five hours after he reported the fire via the messaging service Telegram, Golubev said it had been extinguished.
In addition to the two drones intercepted over the Rostov region, Russian air defense systems destroyed two drones over the country’s western regions of Kursk and Belgorod overnight, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian air defense intercepted four of the five drones launched by Russia overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said.
The fifth drone was launched towards Belarus, said Air Force Commander Mykola Oleschuk.
Meanwhile, eight people were injured in an attack in the town of Shebekino in Russia’s Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Saturday.
Vadym Filashkin, the Ukrainian governor of the partially occupied eastern region of Donetsk, said six people were killed and 22 wounded in Russian attacks on Friday.
Also on Saturday, the Kremlin warned that the stationing of American missiles in Germany could lead to European capitals becoming targets of Russian missiles.
The United States and Germany announced Wednesday that they would begin “episodic deployment” of long-range missiles to Germany in 2026, including Tomahawk, SM-6 and hypersonic missiles.
“We have sufficient capabilities to repel these missiles, but the potential victims are the capitals of these countries,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Russian state television.