UPDATE 2-Missile and drone strikes kill eight in Russia and Ukraine

At least eight people have been killed in missile and drone attacks on Russian and Ukrainian territory in the past 24 hours, local authorities on both sides said on Monday, with damage ‌reported to energy infrastructure in Russia's Belgorod region.

At least eight people have been killed in missile and drone attacks on Russian and Ukrainian territory in the past 24 hours, local authorities on both sides said on Monday, with damage ‌reported to energy infrastructure in Russia's Belgorod region. The strikes follow one of the heaviest Russian bombardments of Kyiv since the start of the four-year war, after Moscow vowed on Saturday to retaliate for what it described as a deliberate drone strike on a student dorm in the ‌Russian-controlled Luhansk region. Ukraine's military denied the Russian accusations and said it had struck an elite drone command unit in the area.

Since ‌then, four people, including two teenagers, have been killed in the Russian-controlled eastern Ukrainian town of Horlivka, its mayor Ivan Prikhodko said on Monday on Telegram, blaming Ukrainian armed aggression. In Russia's Belgorod region, one man was killed and another injured in a missile and drone attack that also cut power and water supplies, local authorities said ⁠on Telegram.

ATTACKS ​ACROSS UKRAINE In Ukraine, two people ⁠were killed and 16 wounded in Russian shelling, missile and drone attacks in the southern Kherson region over the past 24 hours, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on ⁠Telegram on Monday.

In another attack near Kharkiv, Ukraine's second biggest city, one person was killed and two were injured. The regional governor said that according to ​preliminary information, Russia carried out a missile attack on the town of Derhachi, just outside the city. A further eight people were ⁠wounded, including a six-year-old boy, in the southeastern Ukrainian regions of Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia, local authorities said in separate Telegram posts. Emergency services in Dnipropetrovsk said a nine-storey apartment building ⁠was ​hit by a drone attack in the town of Pavlohrad and posted photos of thick, black smoke billowing from the building.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. Russia and Ukraine deny deliberately targeting civilians since Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022. U.S. mediation efforts ⁠have so far failed to broker an end to the war. Both sides have accused the other of seeking to escalate the conflict, ⁠and Ukraine plans to send ⁠reinforcements to its northern regions to counter what it believes are Russian plans for a new offensive.

On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said diplomatic efforts to end the fighting should be reinvigorated.