Several killed as Ukraine, Russia trade attacks deep behind the front line | Russia-Ukraine war News

Attacks by Russia and Ukraine have killed at least eight people, including a child, with four dead in Ukraine and another four in Russia and Moscow-annexed Crimea, officials on both sides say.

Thursday’s strikes came as Moscow and Kyiv, in their fifth year of war, escalate attacks deep behind each other’s lines, driving the civilian toll to its highest since 2022 even as fighting on the front remains largely at a standstill.

Ukrainian strikes hit Moscow, Crimea

Ukrainian strikes killed four people, including a child, and wounded eight in Russia and Moscow-annexed Crimea on Thursday, local authorities said.

On the outskirts of Voronezh, 500km (310 miles) south of Moscow, a “three-year-old boy died” in a fire that broke out at his home after a drone crashed on it, regional Governor Alexander Gusev wrote on Telegram.

The boy’s parents sustained “various wounds”, he said, adding that a young man had also been wounded in a separate drone attack in the same area.

In Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, one man was killed and another wounded when a Ukrainian drone struck a vehicle, regional authorities said in a statement on Telegram.

In Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, Ukrainian attacks killed two people and wounded four others, Moscow-installed officials said.

Russian strikes hit northern and central Ukraine

A ⁠Russian attack on a ⁠food business ⁠in the Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad ‌in the Dnipropetrovsk region killed three and injured at least 10 people, ⁠regional Governor Oleksandr ⁠Hanzha said on Thursday.

The ⁠attack had ⁠caused ⁠a fire, he added ‌on Telegram.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s national broadcaster Suspilne reported that a 57-year-old man was killed in the Sumy region, in northeast Ukraine, in a mortar attack.

The media outlet said he was struck while in his back yard and could not be saved by medical teams.

Moscow claims progress on the front line

The Russian Ministry of Defence claimed on Thursday in a statement that its forces captured the village of Bilytske, located about 12km (7 miles) north of the city of Pokrovsk, which Moscow claimed to have captured in December.

Earlier, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine claimed that its forces repelled 42 Russian assaults over the past day near 19 settlements on the Pokrovsk front, including Bilytske.

However, Ukrainian authorities have not commented on Russia’s latest claim.

EU envoys agree to new sanctions against Russia

European Union envoys have agreed to a 21st sanctions package against Russia, imposing curbs on its banking sector ⁠while also finding a compromise with Greece to soften restrictions on Russian LNG, EU diplomats said on Thursday.

The latest sanctions package targets 218 individuals ⁠and entities, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said in a ‌post on X.

Kallas said the measures hit more than 100 banks and cryptocurrency ⁠operators, at least 40 vessels ⁠from Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, as well as several ⁠oil refineries. The package also ⁠adds more ⁠than 50 military-industrial entities to the sanctions list, including key ‌actors involved in producing Russia’s long-range drones, she ‌added.

The package granted a one-year exemption allowing EU companies to transfer Russian LNG to third countries, with an automatic renewal, after demands from Greece. Sanctions require unanimity to be adopted.

“Member states showed ‌solidarity with Greece and it’s expected that Greece will do the same with others in the future,” one EU diplomat said, Reuters reported.

Athens said a forthcoming ban on transfer services of Russian LNG to third countries would simply shift market share outside Europe and would not affect Russian revenues.

The measure was due to come into effect on January 1.

EU imports of Russian LNG will still be banned from that date.

Greece dominates Europe’s LNG carrier market and is among ⁠the biggest players globally, competing with Japan, China and the United States.

The ⁠package includes a 12-month freeze on the Russian oil price cap at $44.10 a barrel.