KIEV, Sept 12 (Reuters) – Russian airstrikes in several regions of Ukraine on Saturday killed six people, wounded dozens and caused damage to residential buildings and infrastructure across the country, authorities said.
The number of civilian deaths has risen sharply in Ukraine over the past two months as Russia intensifies attacks on power plants and other infrastructure. Ukraine has hit energy facilities and warehouses in regions distant from Russia, and both sides have attacked each other’s maritime transport.
The governor of Zhytomyr region, west of Kyiv, Vitaliy Bunechko, said that a Russian strike on a supermarket killed two people in the town of Zvyahel. Two gas stations were also targeted, as well as an unidentified “foreign-investment” company, he said.
Earlier, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reported attacks on the city of Zaporizhzhia in the southeast of the country and on his hometown Kryvyi Rih.
The governor of Zaporizhzhia region, Ivan Fedorov, said that two people were killed and 11 wounded in attacks on Zaporizhzhia and other localities.
Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the Kryvyi Rih military administration, said that two people were killed in attacks that occurred during the early hours of the morning against the city, carried out by drones and missiles.
The Russian Armed Forces said their troops attacked the Ukrainian Zaporizhstal steel plant in the city of Zaporizhzhia, an Interpipe Steel complex in Dnipro, and several factories in Kryvyi Rih, including the Northern Iron Ore Beneficiation Works complex.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the information provided by either side.
In the Odessa region, Governor Oleh Kiper said that 37 people, including a baby, were injured in a series of attacks that occurred overnight. Two people were missing.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Moscow’s forces continued their attacks on Ukrainian ports, hitting a cargo ship in Odessa which, according to the ministry, was transporting goods for military use.
Earlier in the day, the ministry said its forces had attacked two cargo ships during the night at the Chornomorsk port on the Black Sea.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces said they had struck one of Russia’s largest producers of synthetic rubber in Togliatti, in the Samara region, causing a fire. The Togliattikauchuk plant specializes in producing synthetic rubbers and fuel additives used in Russian missiles, according to reports.
The Russian regional governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said industrial facilities in the Samara region had been attacked by Ukrainian drones, without specifying which ones or whether they had been damaged, Interfax reported.
Ilya Sukhikh, the mayor of the city of Togliatti in the Samara region, said several residential buildings had been damaged and one person injured.
In a separate attack, four commercial properties were set on fire in the city of Taganrog in the Rostov region, local mayor Svetlana Kambulova told TASS.
