Russian strikes kill four across Ukraine near front line and border

Russian strikes killed at least four people across Ukraine’s southeast and northeast on Sunday, hitting a regional capital, a border town and communities close to the Russian frontier. The deaths in Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv and Sumy added to a pattern of civilian losses far from the biggest battlefield advances, where residential blocks, evacuation routes and garden plots remained exposed to sudden attack.

In Zaporizhzhia, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said two people were killed and 16 others were injured when Russian forces struck the city. He said the attack sparked a fire, and images he posted showed a building engulfed in flames and a neighborhood left in rubble. Additional reporting said guided aerial bombs hit a residential area. A separate bomb was reported in the village of Shevchenkivske, where a private home and a car were destroyed.

The northern fighting front was hit as well. In Kharkiv region, a missile struck the town of Zmiiv, killing one person and injuring eight others, including two children, according to regional governor Oleh Syniehubov. Later reporting identified the dead civilian as a 55-year-old woman. Kharkiv region police said an officer was killed while trying to organize the evacuation of residents in another community farther north, underscoring the danger faced by emergency responders as well as civilians.

Sumy region, which also borders Russia, reported another death during the day. Regional officials said an elderly woman from the Seredyna-Buda community was killed while working in her garden as shelling hit the area. The deaths in Sumy came alongside the blasts in Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, showing how the border regions remain vulnerable to strikes that can reach homes, streets and evacuation corridors with little warning.

Reuters said it could not independently verify the accounts from either side, and both Russia and Ukraine deny deliberately targeting civilians during the war. Even so, the reports fit a wider week of bombardment across Ukraine, including separate strikes on Kyiv and other regions, as the conflict continues to grind through front-line cities and border communities with repeated civilian casualties.