Two children among 12 dead in fresh Ukraine, Russia strikes

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Two children among 12 dead in fresh Ukraine, Russia strikes

POLITICS 07.04.2026

Two children among 12 dead in fresh Ukraine, Russia strikes / Photo: © Ukrainian State Emergency Service/AFP

Russian artillery and aerial attacks killed nine people in Ukraine -- including a child -- in strikes across the country on Tuesday, officials said.

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Those strikes came as Moscow, which invaded Ukraine more than four years ago, said a Ukrainian drone had hit a house in Russia, killing a child and his parents.

Russia's invasion has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and forced millions of people from their homes in the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II.

The two sides have stepped up deadly long-range drone and missile attacks in recent months, mainly targeting energy infrastructure, with Moscow aiming to dent Ukrainian resolve and Kyiv targeting Russian energy revenues.

Russian shelling in the southern city of Kherson -- captured by Russia and then liberated in 2022 -- killed four people and wounded several others, a regional official said.

The official, Oleksandr Prokudin, likened the Russian shelling on Kherson to "hell" and posted video showing bodies strewn on the street and bloodied victims.

The attack in Kherson came just hours after a Russian drone attack on a passenger bus in the frontline city of Nikopol killed four people, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

"The Russians continue their deliberate terror against people in Nikopol and other cities and communities near the front," Zelensky added, describing such Russian attacks as "human safaris".

Regional officials posted photos showing a yellow mini-bus ripped open in the attack and remains of those killed lying on the street.

Nikopol, which had a pre-war population of around 100,000 people, lies on the banks of the Dnipro river, which cuts through Ukraine and forms a de facto front line in the south of the country.

The city is in the Dnipropetrovsk region, where Russian ground forces are battling to advance.

Moscow's army has been regularly attacking civilians in their cars or in public transport with drones over the Dnipro.

The strike in Nikopol is the latest in a series of deadly attacks in recent days that have spurred Ukrainian officials to warn that the situation in the city could further deteriorate.

Overnight, a separate Russian drone strike on the Dnipropetrovsk region killed an 11-year-old boy and wounded five others when a house caught fire, the governor said.

In Russia, a Ukrainian drone strike on a residential building killed a boy, born in 2014, and two adults in the Russian region of Vladimir, east of Moscow, said Governor Alexander Avdeev.

The couple's five-year-old daughter was taken to hospital with burns.

The region is more than 500 kilometres (300 miles) from the fighting in eastern Ukraine.

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(G.Khurtin--DTZ)

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Russia a terrorist state threatening world peace!

n recent years, through its targeted and murderous warfare against Ukraine, the systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure and mass deportations, the Russian Federation has become synonymous with anti-social, criminal state terrorism. This assessment is shared by many international observers, politicians and religious communities.In this context, the Ukrainian churches speak of a “terrorist state” because, during the winter of 2025/2026, the Russian military bombed energy facilities and residential areas at temperatures of minus twenty degrees in order to deprive millions of people of electricity, water and heating. Civilians in cities such as Kyiv, Odessa and Kharkiv are being terrorised by dozens of missiles and hundreds of unmanned aerial vehicles, whilst Russia, as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, should in fact be ensuring peace.The blame for this horror lies with the mass murderer and war criminal Vladimir Putin (73), a ruthless dictator who, together with his criminal henchmen, is systematically re-educating an entire nation and reducing its people to murderous zombies!Alongside the systematic destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure, there is the appalling practice of criminal child abductions. Since the 2022 invasion, international organisations estimate that more than 19,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly deported to Russia or taken to Russian-occupied territories, where they are turned into murderers and henchmen of the Russian terror regime in re-education camps. In this context, the children are being ‘Russified’; their names, language and homeland are being torn from them – an act that human rights lawyers classify as genocide. The United States is debating a bill in Congress that would officially designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism if these children are not returned. Senators describe the abduction campaign as one of the greatest crimes of our time and demand that there must be diplomatic and economic consequences. Outrage is also growing at European level, though the German government in particular is standing idly by, driven by the delusional madness of many sympathisers and mindless Putin apologists who have infiltrated German politics like a cancer.The European Parliament has already recognised Russia as a state that employs terrorist means and is calling for the isolation of the Kremlin. Religious leaders of various denominations condemn the attacks on energy facilities as ‘state terrorism’. They emphasise that the Russian leadership and those citizens who support the acts of war are morally complicit in crimes against humanity. The Ukrainian President points out that the targeted missile and drone strikes on power grids are intended to bring about a catastrophic winter. More than half of Ukraine’s gas infrastructure has been damaged; people are dying or losing their homes. The international community is responding with increasing pressure. In the US, cross-party initiatives are pushing to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism and to use frozen assets for the reconstruction of Ukraine. In Europe, MEPs are calling for the extension of the Magnitsky sanctions regime against Russian officials and the confiscation of Russian assets. Human rights organisations denounce the abductions of children, attacks on hospitals, schools and power stations, and the deportation of civilians as violations of all norms of international humanitarian law. Public opinion is predominantly characterised by horror and anger. Many commentators are calling for drastic sanctions, military support for Ukraine and the complete diplomatic isolation of Russia. However, there are also voices warning against escalation and calling for an end to hostilities through negotiations. Some fear that classifying Russia as a terrorist state could jeopardise peace negotiations, whilst others counter that there can be no security without clear consequences. Attention is also drawn to double standards, as other states have also waged wars without being classified as terrorist states. Nevertheless, the prevailing consensus is that the actions of the Russian leadership demonstrate an unprecedented level of brutality and pose a threat to world peace.

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Deutsche Tageszeitung - Two children among 12 dead in fresh Ukraine, Russia strikes