WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia, Ukraine report six civilians killed in attacks on Kherson, Horlivka

Russian attacks on southern Ukraine's Kherson region killed five civilians on Sunday, Ukrainian officials said, while Russian-installed officials in the eastern town of Horlivka said one person was killed in result of Kyiv's shelling.

Russian forces abandoned the city of Kherson, the administrative centre of the Kherson region on the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine, and the western bank of the River over a year ago but have since subjected many areas there to constant shelling from their positions on the eastern bank.

The deaths in Kherson occurred in an incessant Russian shelling of the city and the region over the preceding 24 hours, Ukrainian officials said.

Regional police said three people died in shelling of an apartment building and a private home in Kherson city. A woman died in a drone attack in a small town south of Kherson and a second woman was killed when a town further north came under heavy fire.

Oleksandr Tolokonnikov, head of the press office of Kherson's regional military administration, told the Ukrainian public broadcaster that gas and water supplies were partially cut off due to the attacks, which also hit a medical facility.

"The windows were broken, the building was damaged," Tolokonnikov said.

Some 600 km (400 miles) northeast of Kherson in the town of Horlivka, in areas of Ukraine's Donetsk region under Russian control, Ukraine's shelling destroyed a shopping centre and several other buildings, a Russian-installed official said.

The attacks killed one woman and wounded six civilians, the Russian-installed mayor of Horlivka, Ivan Prikhodko, said on the Telegram messaging app.

Reuters could not independently verify the Russian and Ukrainian reports.

While Moscow and Kyiv deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia launched on Ukraine in February 2022, both sides have carried out numerous strikes on each other's infrastructure that is critical to their militaries.

** Russia, Ukraine exchange claims over downed military aircraft

Russian and Ukrainian military officials both reported downing enemy aircraft on Sunday in different areas of the 1,000-km-long (621-mile) front of their 22-month-old war.

Commander of Ukraine's air force, Mykola Oleshchuk, said Ukrainian anti-aircraft units had struck a Russian Su-34 fighter bomber near the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov in southern Ukraine.

Oleshchuk, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the aircraft had not returned to its base, but gave no further details.

Russia's Defence Ministry said earlier that its air defence systems had shot down four Ukrainian military aircraft over the past 24 hours -- just two days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv had downed three Russian aircraft.

In its daily dispatch, the Russian Defence Ministry said its air defence shot down three Su-27 fighter aircraft and one Su-24 tactical bomber in the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions of southeastern Ukraine. The dispatch provided no further details.

On Friday, Zelenskiy said the country's forces shot down three Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber aircraft on the southern front, hailing it as a success in the conflict.

Air Force commander Oleshchuk also said the planes had been downed.

Reuters was not immediately able to corroborate the battlefield reports from either side.

** Ukrainian investigators say they uncover fraud in arms procurement

Ukraine's SBU security service and the Defence Ministry said on Friday they had uncovered a scheme for fraudulent purchase of artillery shells that involved embezzlement of the equivalent of nearly $40 million.

Corruption in Ukraine, more than 30 years after the end of Soviet rule, has become an even more crucial issue as Kyiv proceeds with its application to join the European Union.

Incidents of corruption in the military, including in procurement, have sparked several prominent scandals.

A statement issued by the SBU said the corrupt scheme focused on contracts to procure artillery shells.

A contract to secure the shells at higher than market prices had been abandoned by the defence ministry's recently created procurement agency and a new deal struck eliminating intermediaries and significantly reducing the price.

But a senior ministry official, it said, had extended the previous contract and funds totalling nearly 1.5 billion hryvnias ($40 million) were deposited in accounts belonging to the intermediary firms.

The official, the main suspect in the case, was removed from his duties, legal proceedings have been launched against him and attempts are under way to recover the money.

A Defence Ministry statement said the scheme was uncovered last week and an audit confirmed the illegal activity. Searches were conducted within the ministry and at other premises.

($1 = 37.5200 hryvnias)

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian troops destroy over 10,000 Ukraine’s drones during special op — Defense Ministry

Russian troops have destroyed over 10,000 drones of the Ukrainian army since the beginning of the special military operation, the Defense Ministry said.

"A total of 558 aircraft, 261 helicopters, 10,040 drones, 442 anti-aircraft missile systems, 14,299 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,189 multiple rocket launchers, 7,479 field branch artillery weapons and mortars, as well as 16,660 units of special tactical vehicles have been destroyed since the beginning of the special military operation," the ministry said.

Meanwhile, in the past 24 hours, the Russian army has intercepted three HARM missiles, three HIMARS rockets, a Neptun anti-ship missile, as well as shot down four Ukrainian aircraft and 49 UAVs of the Ukrainian army, the Defense Ministry went on to say. "Air defense systems shot down four Ukrainian aircraft: three Su-27 and one Su-24 planes of the Ukrainian air forces near the settlements of Shirokoye, Odarovka in the Zaporozhye Region and Grigorovka of the Dnepropetrovsk Region. Three HARM anti-radar missiles, three HIMARS rockets and a Neptune anti-ship missile were intercepted," the ministry said.

According to it, 49 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed in the area of the settlements of Staromikhailovka in the Donetsk People's Republic, Zolotaryovka in the Lugansk People's Republic, Vasilyevka, Golaya Prystan in the Kherson Region, as well as Berdyansk, Novogorovka and Mirnoye in the Zaporozhye Region.

Reuters/Tass