Mutual Strikes Kill at Least 17 as Russia and Ukraine Trade Attacks on Civilian Areas

At least 12 people were killed and dozens injured in Russian strikes across Ukraine on or around June 2-3 2026, according to Ukrainian authorities. The attacks occurred as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy marked International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression and stated that at least 707 Ukrainian children have been killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.

Five people were killed and 11 others injured in Russian bomb and drone attacks on Donetsk region, the National Police of Ukraine said.

Seven settlements came under fire: Dobropillya, Druzhkivka, Kramatorsk, Mykolaivka, Sloviansk, Oleksiyevo-Druzhkivka, and Kuritsyne. Forty-two civilian objects were destroyed, including 16 residential buildings, and at least 14 apartment buildings and 11 cars were damaged. A medical institution, an evacuation vehicle, and an ambulance were also destroyed.

Three people were killed and 21 others injured in Russian missile and drone attacks in Kharkiv region, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said. Two people were killed and four others injured when Russian forces struck the village of Yampil in Sumy region’s Shostka district, according to regional head Oleg Hrygorov. Four injured women from that attack were taken to hospital.

One person was killed and five others injured in Russian shelling in Dnipropetrovsk region’s Nikopol area, said regional head Oleksandr Ganzha. The communities of Nikopol, Marhanetska, Chervonogryhorivska, Pokrovska, and Myrivska came under attack. Russian shelling caused fires in Slobozhanske and Petrykivska; firefighters extinguished a blaze at a logistics company building.

One person was killed by Russian shelling in the Komyshany settlement in Kherson region, according to local head Oleksandr Prokudin. Zelenskyy wrote on social media that the day commemorates “the most painful episodes of the war, about the greatest injustice and the evil Russia inflicts when the most vulnerable and the most innocent are killed.

” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Putin had not yet been shown Zelenskyy’s letter proposing a meeting.

In Russian-controlled areas, one person was killed when a Ukrainian drone struck a civilian vehicle in Luhansk region’s Troitsky Municipal District, Moscow-appointed governor Leonid Pasechnik said. A Ukrainian drone also hit a commuter train in the Novoaidar Municipal District; none of the 13 passengers were injured.

One person was killed and three others injured when a Ukrainian drone struck a commuter train in Russia-annexed Crimea, according to Moscow-backed head Sergei Aksyonov.

Three people were killed and seven others injured in a Ukrainian attack on non-residential buildings in Simferopol, Aksyonov added. Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces took control of the village of Komsomolskoye in Zaporizhia region. The ministry reported Ukrainian losses of up to 430 servicemen, four armoured combat vehicles, eight cars, and a counter-battery radar station in recent assaults.

Putin stated that Russia has an air defence system and that “we must improve it, strengthen it, and we will do so,” a day after Ukrainian drones struck an oil complex and naval base in St Petersburg.