Russia, Ukraine strikes kill 19 as drone and missile attacks surge

Strikes killed 19 people in Russia and Ukraine on Sunday, as waves of drones and missiles pummelled civilian infrastructure on both sides.

With fighting at the front at a near standstill and talks frozen, the two countries have significantly stepped up long-range attacks deep behind each other's lines, pushing the civilian death toll to its highest levels since the conflict's first months in 2022.

In Russia, swarms of Ukrainian drones killed five people in a residential area of the southern Rostov region, regional governor Yuri Slusar said. Three more people were killed in the Belgorod, Kursk and Moscow regions, along with three others in parts of Ukraine controlled by Russia.

Moscow's regional governor Andrey Vorobyov described the assault as "one of the most massive drone attacks in recent memory." Russia's defense ministry said it had intercepted 1,478 drones across the country in the past 24 hours.

In Ukraine, a barrage of Russian drones and missiles killed two people and wounded 14 at ArcelorMittal's steel plant in Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown. The plant, one of Ukraine's biggest steel producers, said it partially halted operations after the strike damaged its core production facilities.

Strikes also hit other regions, killing two people in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region and one in the border region of Sumy.

In Kyiv, a popular outdoor book market at Pochaina, long a destination for rare and antiquarian volumes, was struck. Bookseller Dmytro Semenukha saw all four of his stalls burn to the ground.

"There used to be a store. And books, and flags of all the countries, all the countries. Tons of everything. And that's it," the 45-year-old told AFP.

In a social media post on the overnight raid, Zelenskyy said that "wherever the Russians can reach with their ballistic missiles, they strike civilian infrastructure."

Over the past week, he said, Ukrainian cities had been pummeled by "more than 1,550 attack drones, nearly 1,560 guided aerial bombs, and 62 missiles," as he renewed his appeal to allies for more air defense.

(With input from AFP)