Ukraine strike on Russia-held region kills four

KIEV

A Ukrainian strike on the Russia-held part of Ukraine's Kherson region killed four people, the Moscow-installed governor said on Tuesday, as Kiev stepped up retaliatory strikes against Russia.

Moscow said it had intercepted 209 drones overnight and in the morning from Ukraine's second large barrage in a row.

Four civilians were killed in a "targeted drone attack on civilian vehicles" on a highway, Vladimir Saldo, governor of the Russian-occupied part of Kherson region, wrote on Telegram.

He added another person was wounded in a separate Ukrainian strike in the region.

Kiev did not immediately comment but denies targeting civilians in Russian-occupied areas of the country.

Ukraine's local authorities meanwhile accused Russia of killing a man in the city of Kherson, which is controlled by Kiev.

"A 65-year-old resident of Kherson came under enemy fire. He sustained fatal injuries," the Kherson region governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, said on Telegram yesterday.

Kiev is ramping up strikes on Russia's energy and oil infrastructure, in what it sees as a legitimate response to Moscow's daily attacks on Ukrainian cities, which have at times left millions without heating and power.

Ukraine said Russia had launched 154 drones and missiles overnight, around half of which were intercepted.

An unmanned aircraft hit railway and energy infrastructure in Ukraine's Poltava and Sumy regions, leaving more than 1,000 people without electricity.

On Oct. 6, Ukraine launched 251 drones towards Russia, and two people died in a rocket strike on the city of Belgorod around 30 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.

The Russian army controls around one-fifth of Ukraine's territory, including the Crimean peninsula annexed in 2014, and has been grinding forward on the battlefield, with both militaries suffering immense losses.