- Ukrainian and Russian forces exchanged drone and artillery fire, resulting in at least seven deaths.
- The Kremlin claimed to have annexed both regions in late 2022.
- Russian head of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, reported two more deaths in Dnipryany.
Regional officials on both sides of the frontline announced on Thursday that Ukrainian and Russian forces exchanged drone and artillery fire, resulting in at least seven deaths. The increase in civilian casualties occurred as Russian forces intensified their efforts in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, preceding events in Moscow on May 9, commemorating the Soviet Union’s victory in World War II.
Officials stated that a Ukrainian attack drone caused two deaths in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, while Ukrainian artillery fire killed two more individuals in the southern Kherson region. Furthermore, despite ongoing battles to gain full control, the Kremlin claimed to have annexed both regions in late 2022.
“A strike on a civilian car killed a man and a woman, orphaning their four young children,” wrote Evgeny Balitsky, the Russian-installed head of Zaporizhzhia, on social media.
He announced that authorities would take the children into care and provide them with psychological assistance. Separately, Vladimir Saldo, the Russian head of the Kherson region, stated that Ukrainian fire killed two more people in the village of Dnipryany.
The two frontline regions witnessed intense bouts of fighting in 2022 and the summer of 2023 when Ukraine launched a counteroffensive that failed to meet expectations in Zaporizhzhia.
The brunt of the fighting has since shifted to the eastern Donetsk region, which Moscow also claims as Russian territory. Vadim Filashkin, the Ukrainian head of the Donetsk region, reported that shelling killed three people in separate incidents in the villages of Udachne, where two people died, and in Kurakhivka, where one person died.
“The final consequences of the shelling have yet to be determined,” he said.
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