Russian attacks kill six in southern Ukraine, regional governors say

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KYIV (Reuters) -Russian air attacks killed at least six people overnight, injured 21 more, including five children, and set on fire to several buildings in southern Ukraine, regional governors said on Monday.

Five people were killed in the Mykolaiv region and one was killed in the Zaporizhzhia region, where a residential building was destroyed, the governors of the regions said on the Telegram messaging app.

Among the injured in Zaporizhzhia were five children between the ages of 4 and 17.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Russia.

The Ukrainian air force said later on Monday it shot down two missiles and 39 out of 74 drones launched by Russia overnight.

The air force said 30 more drones were lost in Ukrainian air space and three more left toward Belarus and territories temporarily occupied by Russia.

Ukraine and Russia deny targeting civilians in their attacks, but thousands of people have died since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the vast majority of them Ukrainians.

The Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia regions and most the of eastern half of Ukraine were under air raid alerts and the threat of Russian drone attacks on and off for most of the night, starting around 1930 GMT on Sunday, according to data from the Ukrainian air force.

(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne and Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv; Editing by Stephen Coates and Ros Russell)