MOSCOW, July 31. /TASS/. The Kiev regime fostered and supported by the collective West has again intensified attacks on the civilian population in Russian regions, killing at least 61 people and injuring hundreds of others over the past week, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a comment.

"The Kiev regime, fostered by Western countries, has intensified attacks on the civilian population in Russian regions," the diplomat noted. According to her, "between July 24 and 31, at least 61 people were killed in Ukrainian shelling and drone attacks, with 327 others injured." Children, too, were affected, Zakharova continued, as one child was killed and 13 minors were injured.

She described the July 29 drone attack on a shuttle bus running from Lugansk to Svetlodarsk in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) as yet another shocking crime as seven women and three men suffered injuries. Also in the LPR, a monk was killed as a drone hit a passenger car, the diplomat said.

This terror, Zakharova emphasized, is being committed with total approval from the Kiev regime’s Western sponsors who supply Ukrainian militants with weapons for attacks against Russian civilians. "The destructive contribution from all parties involved in attacks on Russian regions does not go unnoticed and has been thoroughly recorded. No doubt, those implicated in the aforementioned attacks will bear their share of responsibility after their Ukrainian protegees are inevitably defeated," she warned. These "games with fire" just escalate political tensions globally and make potential peace and security on the continent a more distant prospect, she argued.

Russia, the diplomat continued, "calls on them to immediately condemn the barbaric attacks of neo-Nazi Ukrainians on Russian civilians and disassociate themselves from military and political support to the criminal Kiev regime."

Meanwhile, Russia will continue its energetic efforts to protect its citizens and security using all available means "for which there are enough resources, political will and public demand in our country," Zakharova concluded.