Three people tragically lost their lives during a night of air strikes and intense shelling in Ukraine, while Moscow's Vnukovo airport briefly suspended flights after successfully foiling a drone attack near the Russian capital.
In Ukraine's Kharkiv region, two people were killed, and four others sustained injuries due to a Russian air strike, as confirmed by the head of the local regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov. The attack included a guided bomb that struck a blood transfusion center in the Kupyan district on August 5, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who took to social media to condemn the incident as a "war crime" and a testament to Russian aggression. He emphasized the importance of defeating terrorists and preserving life in the face of such violence.
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Meanwhile, in Russian-held Donetsk, a woman in her eighties was killed by Ukrainian shelling, as reported by the city's Moscow-appointed mayor, Alexei Kulemzin, as AP reported.
Adding to the night's tensions, Moscow's Vnukovo airport, located 15 kilometers southwest of the Russian capital, suspended flights briefly after successfully foiling a drone attack. The drone was shot down in the airspace surrounding the city, and the Russian defense ministry confirmed its destruction by air defense systems in the Podolsk region of the Moscow suburbs. The attack marks the second incident involving drones crashing into Moscow in a month, revealing the vulnerability of Russia's capital as the conflict in Ukraine continues into its second year.
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The night of violence in Ukraine saw heavy clashes, with the Ukrainian air force reporting that Russian forces launched 70 attack drones and air and sea missiles overnight. The bombardment reportedly included cruise missiles launched from aircraft over the Caspian Sea, along with Iranian-made Shahed-136/131 strike UAVs.
As the conflict escalated, several buildings in Ukraine's Khmelnytsky region were damaged by Russian missiles, injuring one person and causing a fire in a warehouse, according to Serhiy Tyurin, deputy head of the region's military administration. In the eastern Kupyan region, missiles struck local houses and farm buildings, leaving a 55-year-old man hospitalized and igniting a forest fire.
In Donetsk, shelling from the Ukrainian side set the main building of the M. Tugan-Baranovsky University of Economics and Trade on fire, as reported by Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-installed head of the illegally annexed Donetsk People's Republic. However, Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry confirmed that there were no casualties, though the building's roof collapsed due to the blaze.
