Ukraine's fierce aerial assaults on Ukraine killed more than three people on Thursday, including a nine-year-old girl and her mother shut out of a shelter, while shelling in western Russia injured some people and triggered evacuations.
Both sides seem to be trying to sap morale and weaken military capacity ahead of a long-promised Ukrainian counter-offensive against Russia's 15-month-old invasion.
The war has killed tens of thousands, uprooted millions, shattered Ukrainian cities, and this week brought more drone raids on Russia's capital Moscow.
Ukraine said it shot down 10 ballistic and Iskander cruise missiles in Russia's 18th attack on the capital, Kyiv. But a nine-year-old girl, her mother and another woman were killed when rocket debris fell near an air raid shelter they had been trying to enter.
There are already maybe five to 10 women with children at the entrance, local resident Yaroslav Ryabchuk said in the district of Desnyanskyi. No one opened up for them. They knocked loudly enough to try to enter the shelter, but no one opened up for them. My wife died. Russia denies it's intent on pursuing civilians or pursuing war crimes, but its forces have destroyed cities and repeatedly hit residential areas since the invasion of Russia on February 24th, 2022.