KYIV, Ukraine—Eleven people were killed Saturday in Russian shelling in Ukraine’s partially occupied Donetsk province, according to regional Gov. Vadym Filashkin. Five children were among the dead and eight further people were wounded in the attack on the Pokrovsk district, he said.
Ukraine’s military claimed Saturday it successfully attacked the Saki military airbase in the west of the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula.
“Saki Airfield! All targets were hit!” Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on Telegram. He also posted a photograph that gave the impression of showing the airfield, although it was not easy to identify the image.
Russian officials did not comment on the alleged attack, but Russia’s Defense Ministry said in the early hours of Saturday that it had successfully downed four Ukrainian missiles over the peninsula overnight. Later on Saturday, the ministry reported that its air defense forces had shot down six anti-ship missiles over the Black Sea.
Traffic was temporarily suspended for the third day in a row on a bridge linking the peninsula, which Moscow illegally seized in 2014, with Russia’s southern Krasnodar region. This lapse provides a source link for Russia’s war effort.
In Russia, local officials in Belgorod, about 40 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, said an “air target” had been shot down as it approached the city. The Dec. 30 Ukrainian attacks in Belgorod killed 25 people, officials said, and rocket and drone attacks continued that week.
As Russians prepared to celebrate Orthodox Christmas, Christmas Eve masses in Belgorod were canceled due to the “operational situation,” Mayor Valentin Demidov said.
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