Russian strikes hit Ukraine’s Sumy region
Attacks damage infrastructure and kill civilians near border
Russian forces launched renewed missile and drone strikes across the northern Sumy region, hitting residential areas and critical infrastructure in the border‑zone oblast and causing civilian casualties and widespread damage. Local authorities reported multiple overnight attacks that left at least one person dead and nine injured in Sumy, with emergency crews working amid power outages and disrupted water supplies. Some strikes shattered windows, damaged vehicles and buildings, and forced emergency services to operate under persistent drone threat.
Ukraine’s military said the assaults are part of a broader Russian campaign targeting energy and utilities in frontline provinces to degrade essential services ahead of winter and to gain leverage in the border zone, where incursions and shelling have risen in recent weeks. Officials and the regional governor said homes, schools, power lines and other civilian infrastructure have repeatedly been struck despite Moscow’s assertions of military-only objectives, and warned that repair work is being hampered by the proximity to the Russian frontier and ongoing threats from drones.
The attacks have left residents in affected towns facing intermittent power, limited heating and constrained access to medical care, compounding humanitarian challenges as winter approaches. International leaders condemned the strikes, saying repeated targeting of civilians and utilities may violate the laws of armed conflict and urging stepped-up measures to protect civilian infrastructure and broaden aid for Ukraine’s energy resilience.
Separate but related strikes in the northern Chernihiv region were reported to have killed four civilians and left hundreds of thousands without power and many without water after attacks on heating and energy facilities, underscoring the wider pattern of recent Russian assaults on Ukraine’s energy network. Authorities in Sumy continue to monitor further strikes and rising casualties while trying to safeguard critical services and assist affected populations as the situation remains fluid.
