Russian forces launched renewed attacks across multiple Ukrainian regions over the past day, killing civilians and damaging homes and infrastructure in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Sumy, and Chernihiv, Ukrainian regional authorities reported.
The strikes involved drones, artillery, rocket systems, and air-dropped munitions, hitting residential areas and civilian facilities and prompting evacuations in several frontline and border communities.
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Kherson region: deaths, evacuations, widespread damage
According to the head of the Kherson Oblast military administration, Oleksandr Prokudin, Russian forces shelled dozens of settlements over the past 24 hours using drones, air strikes, and artillery.
He said the attacks targeted critical and social infrastructure as well as residential areas, damaging at least eight apartment buildings and six private homes. Shops, private vehicles, and elements of the electric transport network were also hit.
“As a result of Russian aggression, two people were killed and two more were injured,” Prokudin said, adding that 18 residents were evacuated from recently liberated communities. He urged civilians who wish to leave for safer areas to contact regional evacuation hotlines.
Zaporizhzhia region: hundreds of strikes, woman wounded
In the neighboring Zaporizhzhia region, the scale of attacks was particularly intense. Regional governor Ivan Fedorov reported that a 51-year-old woman was wounded during an enemy strike.
Over the course of the day, Russian forces launched 569 strikes on 25 settlements across the region, he said. These included 13 air strikes, more than 300 drone attacks – mostly first-person-view (FPV) drones – nine strikes using multiple-launch rocket systems, and nearly 240 artillery attacks.
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Authorities received at least 20 reports of damage to homes, vehicles and outbuildings. Regional officials said shelling continued into Sunday morning, indicating no immediate lull in attacks.
Donetsk region: civilian killed, drones hit apartment blocks
In the Donetsk region, regional governor Vadym Filashkin said one civilian was killed in Sloviansk on Jan. 3, while another person was injured elsewhere in the region.
“Russia is killing civilians,” Filashkin wrote, noting that casualty figures do not include the occupied cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha.
The State Emergency Service reported a mass drone attack on Kramatorsk, where strikes ignited fires in apartments in a five-story residential building and damaged the roof of a nine-story block. A subsequent strike hit the private sector, setting an outbuilding ablaze. Firefighters extinguished all fires.
According to Ukrinform, since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, at least 3,865 civilians have been killed and 8,747 injured in Donetsk region, excluding occupied areas.
Kharkiv region: drone attacks, fires, rising death toll
Further north, in the Kharkiv region, Russian forces attacked settlements in the Chuhuiv and Kupyansk districts overnight using strike drones, the State Emergency Service said.
The strikes sparked three fires. In one village, a house and a gazebo burned over an area exceeding 200 square meters (2,153 square feet), injuring three people. Elsewhere, garages, vehicles and residential buildings caught fire. Emergency crews, including medical teams, were deployed to address the damage.
Separately, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said rescue workers recovered fragments of another body from the rubble of a building previously hit by Russian missiles in the city, bringing the confirmed death toll from that strike to five. Search-and-rescue operations were still ongoing.
Sumy region: civilian killed in drone strike, dozens of attacks reported
In the northern Sumy Oblast, Russian shelling over the past day killed at least one civilian and damaged civilian infrastructure across multiple communities, the regional military administration reported.
A 52-year-old man was killed in one border community after an FPV drone strike, officials said. From the morning of Jan. 3 to the morning of Jan. 4, Russian forces carried out nearly 60 attacks on settlements across the region, with the heaviest fire recorded in areas closer to the Russian border.
The attacks involved artillery, mortars, FPV drones, strike UAVs and guided aerial bombs. Authorities said homes, civilian facilities, non-residential buildings and vehicles were damaged or destroyed in several communities.
Local officials said four residents were evacuated from border areas over the past day with the support of emergency services, police and volunteer organizations. Air raid alerts in the region lasted more than 11 hours during the reporting period, underscoring the sustained intensity of the threat.
Chernihiv region: drones and shelling hit border and civilian areas
Over the past day, Russian troops shelled the Chernihiv region 44 times, damaging civilian infrastructure and vehicles, according to Head of the Regional Military Administration Viacheslav Chaus.
“Most of the attacks hit the border areas – the Novhorod-Siverskyi and Koriukivka districts. However, there were also strikes in the Pryluky area and other parts of the Chernihiv region. Explosions were recorded in the Pryluky district in the evening. No information about casualties or major destruction has been received,” Chaus said.
An FPV drone struck a civilian car in Semenivka, causing it to catch fire. Geran drones hit an agricultural enterprise between Holmy and Semenivka communities, damaging transport vehicles while grain was being loaded. No casualties were reported.
Geran drones also targeted the site of an old farm in the Chernihiv district. In another village, a UAV struck a non-operational school, damaging windows and the facade.
Human cost mounting as attacks continue
Ukrainian regional administrations and emergency services said the latest strikes form part of continued Russian attacks across frontline and border regions, affecting civilian areas in the south, east and northeast of the country.
Ukrainian officials have repeatedly stated that such attacks deliberately target civilian areas and violate international humanitarian law. Emergency services, police and local administrations said rescue operations, damage assessments and evacuations were ongoing as shelling and air raids continued in multiple regions.
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