One person was killed and more than two dozen injured in various Ukrainian cities as Russia launched a series of pre-dawn missile attacks on Monday. The missile attacks targeted places in the Kherson region Dnipropetrovsk. Eastern cities of Kramatorsk, Kostiantynivka, and Pavlohrad Ukraine said its air defense shot down many Russian cruise missiles.
Civilian Targets Hit
In the attack on the city of Pavlohrad near Dnipro, civilian establishments like apartment blocks, private houses, schools, kindergartens and shops were damaged, the authorities said, according to BBC. The missiles also targeted railway infrastructure and fuel depots, the official said.
Russia carried out 27 air strikes and fired 45 MLRS (multiple launch rocket system) shells at Ukrainian troops' positions and inhabited areas, resulting in deaths and injuries among the civilian population, the Ukraine military said in a statement, according to CNN.
Ukraine's Air Defense Forces said it shot down about 18 Russian cruise missiles. These missiles were fired from the northwestern Russian Arctic and the Caspian Sea regions, the military said "At about 2:30 a.m, Russian occupiers attacked Ukraine using strategic aircraft -- there were nine Tu-95s from the area of Olenegorsk (Murmansk region) and two Tu-160s from the Caspian Sea," Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces said in a statement.
Russian Passport, Rights Chief Tells Ukrainians
Meanwhile, Ukraine's human rights commissioner asked Ukrainians living inside Russian-occupied territories to accept Russian passports. Dmytro Lubinets said Ukrainians living under Russian occupation must do this for their own safety.
"I would advise you to accept a Russian passport and make the decision for yourself to survive. This is the most important thing .... We understand that this happens under pressure, under physical pressure. So, take your passport, survive, and wait for us to liberate this territory," he said.
He assured Ukrainians that they will be able to officially abandon this passport at a point in future and return to normal life. This will be possible only if Ukraine retakes the occupied territories.
Bid to Assassinate Putin
Earlier last week, reports emerged that the Ukraine secret service had tried to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Ukrainians used a kamikaze drone loaded with explosives to kill Putin, but the plan failed after the drone crashed a few miles short of its target, a report in German newspaper Bild said.
The assassination attempt was made during one of Putin's scheduled visits to an industrial park in Moscow. The UJ-22 drone, believed to have been sent from Ukraine, was found abandoned not far from Moscow on Sunday, and several experts believe it intentionally flew over or circled the Russian capital, German newspaper said. The claims were first made by Ukrainian activist Yuriy Romanenko in a tweet.
