Russia launches pre-dawn missile attack on Ukraine

KIEV

Russian strikes killed one person and wounded three others in the Ukrainian region of Kherson, a regional official said Monday.

Moscow also launched a hail of missiles across Ukraine early on Monday, with Kyiv reporting it had shot down most of the projectiles.

"Over the past day, the enemy carried out 39 shellings, firing 163 shells from heavy artillery, Grads, UAVs and aviation. The enemy shelled the city of Kherson 8 times," said Oleksandr Prokudin, of the military administration for Kherson, in Ukraine's south.

"As a result of Russian aggression, one person died and three others, including a child, were injured."

Russia still controls part of the Kherson region, having withdrawn from the eponymous regional capital last November.

Earlier this week, regional authorities said Russian shelling killed a 57-year-old woman and wounded three other people in the village of Bilozerka.

Moscow recently renewed heavy missile attacks on Ukraine, killing 23 people in the city of Uman on Friday.

It launched another volley from about 2:30 am Monday, officials said.

"Tonight, the enemy carried out another massive air attack on Ukraine," the military administration for the capital Kyiv said on Telegram.

The Ukrainian Air Force said on Telegram that 18 missiles were launched from planes, with 15 of them destroyed.

Shelling wounded 25 people in the Dnipropetrovsk oblast and damaged dozens of buildings in the city of Pavlohrad, according to the regional administration.

Ukraine's air defence systems have been bolstered in recent months by delivery Western equipment, including the American Patriot systems received in April.

The latest Russian attacks came as Kyiv prepares for a long-awaited counteroffensive, having vowed to expel Russian forces from territory they seized in the east and south following their 2022 invasion.

On Sunday a pre-dawn Ukrainian strike on a Russian border village killed four people and wounded two others, officials there said.