Russian shelling kills 11 in Donetsk region while Ukraine says it hit a Crimean air base
Eleven people were killed Saturday in Russian shelling in Ukraine’s partially occupied Donetsk province, according to regional Gov. Vadym Filashkin.
Five children were among the dead from the attack on the Pokrovsk district, he said. Eight were wounded.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military claimed Saturday that it had successfully attacked the Saki military air base in the west of the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula.
“Saki airfield! All targets were hit!” Mykola Oleshchuk, an air force commander, wrote on Telegram. He also published a photo appearing to show the airfield, though it was not immediately possible to verify the image.
Russian officials did not comment on the alleged attack, but the country’s Defense Ministry said early Saturday that it had successfully downed four Ukrainian missiles over the peninsula overnight. Later Saturday, the ministry reported that its air defense forces had shot down six anti-ship missiles over the Black Sea.
New data show pronounced recent jumps in the rate at which coronavirus and flu tests are coming back positive, as well as the number of hospital-admitted patients testing positive for the viruses.
Traffic was temporarily suspended for a third straight day on a bridge connecting the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow seized illegally in 2014, with Russia’s southern Krasnodar region. The span is a crucial supply link for Russia’s war effort.
In Russia, officials in Belgorod — some 25 miles from the border with Ukraine — said that an “air target” was shot down on approach to the city.
Ukrainian offensives on Dec. 30 in Belgorod killed 25 people, officials there said, with rocket and drone attacks continuing since then.
As Russians prepared to celebrate Orthodox Christmas, Christmas Eve masses in Belgorod were canceled due to the “operational situation,” Mayor Valentin Demidov said.
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