Ukraine War: At least 20 people injured in Russian attacks in 24 hours

Russian attacks in Ukraine have injured 23 people in the past 24 hours, Ukrainian officials announced Wednesday.

A series of explosions woke up residents in the Odesa region around 2:15 am local time on Wednesday morning. The Ukrainian Air Force shot down 19 out of the 20 Shahed drones launched by Moscow overnight. A residential building was damaged, leaving three wounded. 

About 130 people had to evacuate the damaged building.

On Tuesday night, 10 residential houses were damaged in Ukraine’s second-biggest city, Kharkiv, after two Russian S-300 missiles struck the city, leaving 17 injured. After the Ukrainian Air Force issued a warning about a missile threat to the city around 9:41 pm local time, Mayor Ihor Terekhov called on locals to take shelter.

Mr. Terekhov said the missiles targeted “exactly where there is no military infrastructure, and where there are residential buildings.”

The missile attacks on Kharkiv came from the Russian border region of Belgorod, Ukrainian officials said. That area has seen a recent increase in cross-border attacks by Ukraine.

According to officials from the Kherson region, Russia launched 75 attacks in the last 24 hours, injuring three. The city of Kherson was targeted 36 times. 

Russia’s recently intensified aerial attacks sharply increased civilian casualties in December, with more than 100 Ukrainians killed and nearly 500 injured, according to the United Nations.