Russia, Ukraine accuse each other of overnight drone attacks, killing 7

Russia and Ukraine on Tuesday accused each other of overnight drone attacks, which have killed a total of seven people.

Oleksandr Hanzha, the governor of Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, said on Telegram that a Russian drone strike hit a city bus in the center of Nikopol, a city on the right bank of the Dnieper River.

“This was not a random strike,” Hanzha said, adding that three people were killed and 12 others injured in the strike.

He later said that the number of injured from the attack rose to 16, with eight of them hospitalized.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said the attack occurred in the morning, with rescue teams working at the scene.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a later statement through US social media company X that the death toll from the attack rose to four.

Ukraine’s Air Force said separately that its air defenses shot down 77 of 111 drones launched by Russia overnight.

Russian authorities have not commented on the bus strike. The Defense Ministry said 45 Ukrainian drones were intercepted overnight, including 19 over the northwestern Leningrad region.

In the country's Vladimir region, Governor Aleksandr Avdeyev said that a 7-year-old boy and his parents were killed after a Ukrainian drone struck a residential building in the region's Alexandrovsky district.

Avdeyev noted that the boy's 5-year-old sister managed to survive, but has been hospitalized with burns.

"I have arrived at the scene of the tragedy to assess the aftermath and provide necessary assistance to the victims," he said, adding that a fire at the building has been extinguished.