Russian strikes kill three in central Ukraine – Governor

Russian missile strikes on railway infrastructure and a military airfield in central Ukraine on Saturday left at least three people dead, including a Ukrainian serviceman, a regional governor said.

“Nine Ukrainian servicemen were injured and one serviceman is dead. First, two guards of an electrical substation were killed,” Andriy Raikovych, the head of the Kirovograd region told Ukrainian media.

Russian strikes on central Ukraine are picking up after a lull that came while fighting focused on the eastern Donbas region, which is now mostly under Moscow’s control.

The announced toll from Saturday’s strikes was an unusual admission of precise military casualties from Ukraine, in a conflict in which military deaths have been closely guarded by both sides.

Raikovych said earlier in a statement on social media that a barrage of 13 sea-launched Russian cruise missiles had struck outside the administrative centre of his Kirovograd region.

“Infrastructural facilities outside the regional centre were targeted, in particular, the military airfield Kanatove and a facility linked to Ukrainian Railways,” Raikovych said.

The city, Kropyvnytskyi, has an estimated population of 220,000 people and lies some 300 kilometres (186 miles) south of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.