Russian drones target civilian areas as Ukraine claims battlefield breakthroughs — SkimNews
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- Russia's military conducted round-the-clock drone and missile strikes killing at least three civilians and wounding 41, including a strike on a nine-story Kharkiv apartment building that wounded 38 people, 10 of them children.
- Ukraine's Third Army Corps claimed recapturing 51 more square kilometers in the Donetsk region, bringing its total to 176 square kilometers since Operation Vivaldi launched months ago.
- The corps converted Soviet-era BTR-60 armored personnel carriers into kamikaze vehicles that blew up the strongest Russian fortifications, supplementing ground robots used to attack enemy positions.
- Russia's Defence Ministry said troops captured the villages of Novovodiane in Donetsk and Ulanove in the northern Sumy region — claims that could not be independently verified.
- Russian strikes hit two Kyiv data centers, gas stations, a Nova Poshta distribution hub in Odesa, and cargo ships in the Black Sea and Chornomorsk port, the latter aimed at curbing Ukrainian grain exports with potential food-shortage consequences for import-reliant countries.
- Ukrainian long-range drones started fires at three infrastructure facilities in Russia's Krasnodar region overnight, while Russia claimed air defences downed 254 Ukrainian drones during the same period.
Why it matters: The exchange — 176 sq km of Ukrainian-claimed gains versus unverified Russian village captures — captures a grinding stalemate where drone swarms restrict troop movement, with Ukraine now converting Soviet BTR-60s into kamikaze vehicles to blow through Russian fortifications. Russia's deliberate strikes on Black Sea grain-export ships extend the war's economic damage beyond Ukraine's borders, with the source flagging potential food shortages for import-dependent countries.
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