Russia and Ukraine launch airstrikes on several cities as war escalates | News on Russia-Ukraine war

Russia reports four deaths in attacks on Kiev, while Russian attacks on Ukraine result in injuries and damage to buildings.

According to official information from both sides, there were attacks between Russia and Ukraine during the night and into Sunday, resulting in casualties.

According to the head of the regional administration, two people were injured and dozens of residential buildings and other structures were damaged in a Russian missile attack on Kyiv overnight.

Of the three missiles fired by Russia, Ukrainian air defense systems destroyed two over the Kyiv region, Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk said via the messaging app Telegram.

Falling debris injured two people who did not require hospitalization, Ruslan Kravchenko, head of the Kyiv region administration, said on Telegram. He added that six multi-storey residential buildings, more than 20 private houses, as well as a gas station and a pharmacy were damaged.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces destroyed drone facilities in the southern Russian region of Krasnodar, the Navy reported on Telegram.

Satellite images confirmed the destruction of warehouses, training facilities and drone checkpoints in the region east of the Crimean peninsula, it was said. Photos were published as evidence.

Attacks by Ukraine

On Sunday, Russian authorities said people had been killed in Ukrainian attacks.

Three people, including two children, were killed in a Ukrainian missile attack on the Russian-controlled city of Sevastopol, officials deployed in Russia said. About 100 people suffered shrapnel injuries of varying severity.

The Russian Defense Ministry said four of the five US ATACMS missiles used in the attack were shot down by air defense systems and the ammunition from a fifth detonated in the air.

In the Belgorod region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram that one person was killed and three injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian city of Graivoron.

At least 30 drones were destroyed over the western Russian region of Bryansk on the border with Ukraine, Governor Alexander Bogomaz said on Telegram. No damage was reported.

Russia’s air defense systems also destroyed drones over the Smolensk region, Vasily Anokhin, the governor of the region in western Russia, said on Telegram.

Guided bombs

On Saturday, guided bombs from Moscow destroyed a residential building in Ukraine’s second-largest city. Three people were killed and 52 injured. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy then called for more help in the fight against the growing threat posed by such weapons.

“This Russian terror through guided bombs must be stopped and can be stopped,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram. “We need strong decisions from our partners that will allow us to stop the Russian terrorists and Russian military aviation exactly where they are.”

Later, in his evening video address, Zelensky said that Russian forces had dropped more than 2,400 guided bombs on Ukrainian targets in June alone, including about 700 on Kharkiv.

In the war in Ukraine, Russia is increasingly relying on relatively inexpensive, remotely dropped guided bombs, which pose less risk to Russian forces.

Decisions on nuclear weapons

Samual Ramani of the Royal United Services Institute told Al Jazeera from London that Russia had surprised the world by intensifying its attacks in the spring and summer rather than the winter.

“There was an assumption in the West that the Russians would repeat the attacks they carried out in the winter of 2022 and the winter of 2023,” he said. “But they didn’t do that, taking everyone by surprise.”

On Sunday, the chairman of the defense committee of the Russian lower house, Andrei Kartapolov, was quoted by the state news agency RIA as saying that his country could shorten the decision-making time provided for in the official policy on the use of nuclear weapons.

“If we see that the challenges and threats are increasing, it means that we can correct something (in the doctrine) regarding the timing of the use of nuclear weapons and the decision to use them,” RIA quoted Kartapolov as saying.

Russia’s 2020 nuclear doctrine specifies when the Russian president would consider using a nuclear weapon: broadly in response to an attack with nuclear weapons, other weapons of mass destruction, or conventional weapons, “when the very existence of the state is threatened.”