Several people were injured after Russian missiles and drones struck various targets in the northern Sumy region, as the Kremlin intensifies its aerial bombardment of Ukraine despite ongoing US-led peace efforts.
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Russian attacks continued overnight into Thursday targeting various Ukrainian positions across several cities and regions.
Ukraine's Air Force said the Kremlin fired a barrage of dozens of missiles and drones targeting civilian sites and noted that they had successfully intercepted more than 60 projectiles.
At around 1 am local time, Russian missiles struck the northern region of Sumy, hitting an educational institution. Authorities say the attack damaged the main building of the institution, as well as several workshops and vehicles.
The shockwave also caused windows to blow out in at least three residential high rise buildings, as well as several civilian cars parked nearby. Officials say that according to preliminary reports, there were no casualties in the strike.
The strike on the educational facility also sparked a fire, according to regional head Oleh Hryhorov, who announced the attack in a post on his official Telegram channel early on Thursday.
Elsewhere in Sumy, in the Myropillia settlement, several people were injured after Russian rockets struck the area. Local authorities say shrapnel wounded a driver of a bread truck. A separate attack in the nearby settlement of Krasnopillia injured at least one person.
Moscow is also continuing to carry out several strikes in the eastern Donbas region, which has been the focal point of its offensive since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, currently in its fourth year.
A Russian air strike on the industrial city of Kostiantynivka killed at least one civilian and damaged residential buildings on Wednesday, according to local leadership.
Evacuation operations were launched soon after as authorities scrambled to remove people to save as many lives as possible as Russian forces continue to intensify their efforts to occupy what is one of Ukraine's last major strongholds in the region.
Authorities say evacuations operations remain ongoing, with local media outlets reporting that Ukrainian troops successfully evacuated five residents on Thursday morning in the frontline city.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's intelligence service says Kyiv is continuing to fight back and strike Russian military positions and resources.
The Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) reported that Ukraine's special forces successfully struck a Russian ship in the Black Sea.
The DIU says the ship, valued at $60 million (€51.3 million), is one of four of its kind operated by Moscow and was inaugurated in 2015.
According to Kyiv, at the time of the attack the ship was conducting "radio-electronic intelligence" and patrolling on its approach to Novorossiyska Bay, home to the Kremlin's infamous Black Sea Fleet of warships and aircraft carriers.
Ukraine said in a post supported by video evidence of the operation that the ship's navigation and communication systems were destroyed upon impact after a Ukrainian-produced drone conducted a successful precision strike.
The DIU says the ship has now been taken out of operation pending heavy repair and vowed to continue to fight and repel Russian threats.