Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s Sumy region kills 12, officials say

KYIV (Reuters) -Twelve people including a child were killed in an overnight Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s northeastern region of Sumy, Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday.

The attack on a residential building in the small town of Hlukhiv bordering Russia also wounded 13 people including three children, Ukraine’s national police force said.

Two high-rise buildings and a hospital were damaged and more people could still be under the rubble, the police added on the Telegram messaging app.

“Every new Russian strike only confirms (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s true intentions. He wants the war to continue. He is not interested in talking about peace,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

A video shared by Zelenskiy showed emergency workers sifting through the partially destroyed building as search and rescue operations continued into the morning.

The regional military administration said that Russian forces used two drones in the attack.

Ukraine’s air force said it had shot down 51 drones and lost track of 30 more after Russia launched 87 drones overnight. Drones that disappear from radar have often been brought down by Ukrainian electronic defences.

Russian forces have pummelled the northeastern region of Sumy in recent months, damaging its critical and civilian infrastructure.

A missile strike there on Sunday killed 11 people, injured 89 and cut power in the city of Sumy.

(Reporting by Valentyn Ogirenko and Max Hunder; Writing by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne and Anastasiia Malenko in Kyiv; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Bernadette Baum, Ed Osmond and Andrew Heavends)