Three people have been killed and seven injured in Ukrainian strikes on Russia-annexed Crimea, according to Kremlin officials in the peninsula, as fighting between Russia and Ukraine continues.
The attacks took place early on Thursday (4 June) and targeted the two main centres of Crimea, a region Russia annexed in 2014. The strikes came a day after Moscow and Kyiv exchanged attacks on each other's cities.
Sergei Aksyonov, the Russia-appointed head of Crimea, said Ukrainian forces struck a non-residential area of Simferopol, the peninsula's administrative centre.
In a post on Telegram, Aksyonov said the attack "killed three people and injured seven".
In Sevastopol, Crimea's main port city, Russia-installed Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said air defence systems intercepted more than 20 Ukrainian drones overnight.
While he reported no casualties, Razvozhayev said falling drone debris damaged several buildings. An air raid alert remained in force in the city for nearly five hours.
Crimea was seized and annexed by Russia in 2014 following political upheaval in Ukraine that led to the departure of the country's Moscow-friendly president. Most countries continue to recognise the peninsula as part of Ukraine.
The latest attacks come as authorities in Crimea seek to address fuel shortages linked to an increasingly intense Ukrainian campaign against Russia's oil industry. Ukrainian forces have targeted energy facilities both in occupied territories and deep inside Russia.
Ukraine has stepped up strikes on Russian energy infrastructure in recent months. One of the latest attacks targeted an oil terminal in St Petersburg on Wednesday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said such operations allow Ukraine "to end this war on equal footing".
Civilians were also caught up in attacks elsewhere along the front line; in Kramatorsk, a key Ukrainian stronghold in the eastern Donetsk region, Russian shelling killed at least three civilians, according to regional governor Vadym Filashkin.
Further west, in the neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region, Governor Oleksandr Hanzha said eight people were injured in Russian attacks near the city of Dnipro.
In Russia's Bryansk region, near the Ukrainian border, Acting Governor Yegor Kovalchuk said a Ukrainian drone strike killed a crane operator working for a local utility company.
Efforts to move towards a negotiated settlement remain stalled. Talks brokered by the United States have made little progress, while Washington's attention has increasingly shifted towards tensions involving Iran.
Speaking before a Senate subcommittee on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that the danger of the conflict widening was significant.
"The risk of escalation in the war was real," Rubio said, adding that it was "more real than it was two years ago".
Last month, Russia announced it would carry out "systematic" strikes on targets in Kyiv in response to what it described as a Ukrainian drone attack on a dormitory in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region. Ukraine has denied responsibility.
The war continues to exact a heavy toll on civilians. Earlier this week, Russian attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities killed 23 people, according to Ukrainian officials.
As both sides intensify long-range strikes, civilians across Ukraine, Russia and occupied territories remain exposed to the human cost of a conflict that shows little sign of ending.
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