Russian strikes kill six in Ukraine as Moscow intercepts hundreds of drones

Russian strikes on eastern Ukraine have killed at least six people overnight, local authorities have said, as Moscow shot down 605 Ukrainian drones over its territory and the annexed Crimean Peninsula.

Rescuers worked on Thursday to douse fires and clear debris ⁠in Balakliya, in the eastern Kharkiv region, after Russian strikes ⁠on homes killed three people, authorities said on the Telegram messaging app. Vitalii Karabanov, head of the military administration in the front-line city, said the victims were two women and a man.

Three more people were killed overnight ‌and at least 19 others wounded in Russian attacks in the northern region of Sumy. Twelve people were wounded in the city of Sumy following an attack with ⁠guided aerial bombs, according to Ukrainian police.

Separately, two people were wounded in a Russian attack in the Dnipropetrovsk region, according to Oleksandr Ganzha, the head of the regional military administration.

A drone attack on a ⁠van wounded six people in the southern ⁠region of Kherson, the regional ⁠administration said on Telegram.

In Ukraine’s Black Sea area, a ⁠Russian ⁠attack damaged a foreign-flagged ship loaded with ⁠wheat, killing ⁠a crew member and causing a fire, Oleh Kiper, Odesa regional ‌governor, said.

Ukraine’s seaport administration said the vessel Mera Queen, under the ⁠flag of Guinea-Bissau, was ⁠hit late on Wednesday.

For more than a month, ⁠Russia has been ramping ⁠up its efforts ⁠to strangle Ukraine’s trade and export routes, launching near-daily attacks on the country’s Black Sea ‌ports.