Russian drones pound civilian areas as Ukraine claims battlefield breakthroughs

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — In the ongoing Russian attacks on Ukraine, at least three civilians were killed and 41 others wounded, according to officials on Monday. Simultaneously, Ukraine's army reported gains in a recent advance on the front line.

Russia has been relentlessly bombarding targets across Ukraine without respite, resulting in the loss of lives and injuries. This bombardment took place throughout the day, as confirmed by the Ukrainian officials on Monday.

The attacks were a result of a week-long diplomatic efforts at the United Nations to initiate discussions for ending Moscow's invasion that has been ongoing for 4.5 years. Despite the battlefield positions remaining largely unchanged since last year, largely due to the extensive use of drones restricting troop movements, Ukraine's forces launched a recent offensive, Operation Vivaldi, in a portion of the 1,250-kilometer front line.

Ukraine's Third Army Corps reported the recapture of another 51 square kilometers from the Russians, increasing the total seized territory to 176 square kilometers since the offensive started several months ago. To breach Russian defenses, the corps converted Soviet-era BTR-60 armored personnel carriers into kamikaze vehicles that detonated against the toughest Russian fortifications. They also utilized ground robots for attacking Russian positions.

The claimed advances have occurred in the Donetsk region, a part of eastern Ukraine that the larger Russian army has been struggling to conquer. Russian officials responded by denying any acknowledgment of the Ukrainian claim. The Russian Defense Ministry, however, reported the capture of the villages of Novovodiane in the Donetsk region and Ulanove in the northern Sumy region, although independent verification of these claims was not possible.

The relentless drone attacks from Russia on cities and towns are aimed at weakening Ukraine's resistance and disrupting the Ukrainian economy. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that its forces targeted two data centers in Kyiv, gas stations in the capital, a distribution hub of Nova Poshta postal service in the southern city of Odesa, and a cargo ship in the Black Sea and another one in the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk.

These strikes are intended to hinder Ukraine's grain exports and potentially cause food shortages in countries relying on Ukrainian imports. The Russian aerial attacks have frequently targeted civilian areas, with Moscow claiming they only hit military-related sites. In the Kyiv region, three individuals were killed and eight wounded in Russian drone strikes, while a Russian drone attack on a nine-story apartment building in the northeastern city of Kharkiv left 38 people injured, including ten children.

In the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, four people, including two teenage girls, were hurt when a Russian drone struck a residential area on Sunday evening. Ukrainian long-range drones have also targeted fuel depots and industrial plants deep within Russia, impacting Moscow's economy and war efforts. Reports from local emergency officials in Russia’s Krasnodar region indicated that Ukrainian drone attacks overnight caused fires at three infrastructure facilities, though the exact locations were not specified.