The aftermath of a Russian drone strike on Sumy region, Ukraine, 24 June 2025. Photo: Oleg Hryhorov, Telegram 

An overnight drone strike in northeastern Ukraine’s Sumy region, which borders Russia, has killed three people including an 8-year-old boy, Governor Oleh Hryhorov said on Tuesday.

Writing on Telegram, Hryhorov said that Russian drones attacked a village in the area of Verkhnia Syrovatka at around midnight, damaging 30 residential buildings and several cars and causing a large-scale fire.

The 8-year-old boy’s body was pulled from under the rubble of a damaged building, Hryhorov added. The child’s mother, sister, and grandmother were also injured. A further six people were injured in the drone strike and are currently receiving hospital treatment, three of whom are children. Hryhorov said that the three victims who died all lived on the same street, while the police and emergency services were working at the scene, according to the Kyiv Independent.

The attack is just the latest of many as Russia seeks to intensify its assault on Ukraine’s border areas, with the Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine bearing the brunt of such indiscriminate attacks as it threatens to become the next arena in Russia’s war of aggression.

A recent Russian advance across the border into the region has led to large-scale evacuations from towns and villages in the affected areas, with Hryhorov saying in May that 53,000 people had been evacuated from 202 settlements in the border area, which was more than 60% of the population.