Russian forces targeted more than a dozen settlements in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, an official said Saturday, and a Russian drone hit an ambulance, wounding its driver.
Russian forces also fired at least one cruise missile and 11 other drones in four other regions across the country. Ukraine’s air force claimed the projectiles were all shot down.
Early Saturday, Ukraine launched nearly 20 drones at targets in Russian border regions, and Russian authorities claimed they had downed at least 14 of them.
At least two people were wounded, Russian officials said, when a Ukrainian helicopter drone dropped an explosive device on them in the Kursk region.
The exchange of drone attacks and air strikes came as Ukrainian forces struggle to hold back grinding advances by Russian troops in several locations along the 1,100-kilometer (684-mile) front line.
Ukrainian commanders say the situation east of the Donetsk region city of Pokrovsk is critical, as well as in the city of Chasiv Yar, to the north, where Russian troops have advanced to a water canal separating its eastern district from the main city.
In an interview published in The Guardian, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskiy, said the battlefield situation was “very difficult.”
“The Russian aggressor attacks our positions in many directions,” he said.
“The enemy has a significant advantage in force and resources,” he was quoted as saying. “Therefore, for us, the issue of supply, the issue of quality, is really at the forefront.”
Eight people were wounded in Russian strikes on 17 settlements in the Kherson region, the head of the military administration, Oleksandr Prokudin, said.
In the town of Beryslav, on the west bank of the Dnieper River, a Russian drone hit an ambulance, wounding its driver, he said. It was unclear if the ambulance was transporting anyone at the time.
Russian forces who withdrew from the western side of the Dnieper River in late 2022 have continued to bombard and harass Ukrainian settlements on the opposite banks.
In Russia’s Ryazan region, local Telegram channels reported that an oil storage facility and an airfield may have been attacked. There was no official confirmation.
With the Russian invasion now in its 28th month, the casualty toll on both sides continues to climb.
Ukraine has not released data for its dead or wounded, although President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in February that at least 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed, a figure seen as a gross underestimate.
Western officials, meanwhile, estimate Russia’s casualties — killed or wounded — to exceed 500,000. The latest tally compiled by the BBC’s Russian Service and Mediazona, based on open sources such as published obituaries, found that at least 61,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since February 2022.
The last official figure released by the Russian Defense Department, in September 2022, said the death toll was 5,937 dead.
