Russian attacks overnight killed and wounded several Ukrainian civilians at various locations, Ukrainian officials reported on September 8, shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine was continuing “long-range solutions” aimed at forestalling Russian air strikes inside Ukraine.
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In a video published late on September 8, Zelenskiy said that over the last week, Russian forces had targeted Ukraine with “more than 800 anti-tank missiles, almost 300 Shahed drones, and more than 60 ballistic missiles.”
“The terror can only be reliably stopped in one way -- by strikes on Russian military airfields, on their bases, and on the logistics of Russian terrorism,” he said.
According to the country’s air force, Russia overnight on September 8-9 attacked with four guided missiles fired from the Belgorod region, as well as 23 Iranian-made Shahed drones.
“The enemy’s attack was repulsed by antiaircraft missile forces, mobile-fire groups, and electronic warfare units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine,” the statement on Telegram said.
An elderly couple was killed by Russian shelling in the Ukrainian city of Sumy overnight, officials reported on September 9.
“Another four people were injured, including a 2-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy,” the local prosecutor’s office wrote on Telegram.
One house was reportedly destroyed and 20 others damaged.
Two Ukrainian animal-welfare workers were killed by a Russian strike against a hotel in the Donetsk region city of Mykolayivka, RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service reported on September 9.
Officials in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, said on September 9 at least two people were killed by an explosion of unknown origin at an automobile factory.
“Preliminarily, two people have been killed, and there may be people under the rubble,” the Kyiv military administration wrote on Telegram, adding that rescue workers were on the scene.
A two-story building on the site was “partially destroyed,” officials wrote.
The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region reported that three people, including two children, were injured and two residences were “destroyed” by falling ordnance overnight. Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote that antiaircraft forces had been activated during the night and “several aerial targets” had been shot down.
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Russian Bombs Kill 2 Ukrainian Animal-Welfare Workers
Later on September 8, Gladkov said Ukrainian forces had attacked a fuel depot, triggering a series of fires.
"The Ukrainian military, aided by lethal drones, attacked a fuel storage site in Volokonovsky district," Gladkov wrote on Telegram, referring to an area near the border.
RFE/RL could not independently confirm the reports.
Meanwhile, Russia's Defense Ministry said on September 8 that its forces had taken the town of Novohrodivka, some 12 kilometers from Pokrovsk, a key logistical hub for the Ukrainian military in the east.
The Ukrainian General Staff of the Armed Forces, in a late afternoon report, described the situation as "tense" throughout the Pokrovsk sector and said "fierce battles" gripped areas around several towns, including Novohrodivka.
"So far, the enemy has carried out 23 assaults on Ukrainian positions," the report said. "Battles are going on in six locations."