Four killed in Ukraine as Russia’s war grinds on, focus on Middle East

Russian drone strikes have killed two civilians in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv as two people have been reported killed in a Ukrainian drone attack in the war-torn country’s Russian-occupied part of the Zaporizhia region.

The Ukrainian attack targeted a car in Zaporizhia’s front-line town of Vasylivka on Wednesday, according to Moscow-installed Governor Yevgeny Balitsky.

The Russian attack hit “a civilian enterprise”, according to the Kharkiv region’s governor, Oleh Syniehubov, who said on Wednesday that three women and four men had been hospitalised.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov confirmed Syniehubov’s remarks, posting on the Telegram messaging app that preliminary information showed two people had been killed.

Syniehubov said the wounded were in serious condition and receiving medical care.

Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, lies about 30km (18 miles) from the Russian border.

It was encircled at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion four years ago but withstood early advances by Moscow’s forces, who were pushed back later in 2022. The city has since been a frequent target of Russian air attacks.

The United States is pushing Kyiv and Moscow to agree an elusive peace deal with the war now in its fifth year, but a third round of three-party talks has been derailed by the war in the Middle East, launched by the US and Israel against Iran.

On Saturday, two children were among at least 10 people killed by a Russian missile that hit a five-storey residential building in Kharkiv.