At least six people have died in a Russian missile strike on a postal centre in Kharkiv region, the local governor has said. Fourteen more were injured, of which seven were “fighting for their lives”, said governor Oleh Synehubov. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy shared a video on Saturday night showing what appeared to be a heavily damaged warehouse surrounded by rubble and a container with the logo of Ukrainian postal operator Nova Poshta. He said it was a civilian facility and urged Ukraine’s allies to unite in the “fight against terror”.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, talked to his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on Saturday, Zelenskiy said, in a call in which the two leaders discussed Ukraine’s peace formula, food security, and the situation in the Middle East. Turkey will take part in peace talks next week to discuss ways to end the Ukraine conflict, Zelenskiy said. Turkey has offered itself as a mediator between the two warring parties, helping to broker a deal in July last year that allowed safe grain exports via the Black Sea.
Moscow’s drive to capture the town of Avdiivka encountered fierce resistance on Saturday, Ukraine’s military said, with defences bolstered by fortifications erected nearly a decade ago. “The enemy is becoming more active, but is incurring heavy losses,” General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, commander of Ukraine’s troops in the south, said on Telegram. Russia’s Defence Ministry, in its evening report, made no mention of Avdiivka, but reported strikes on areas outside Bakhmut, a town seized by Moscow’s forces in May after months of battles. Both towns are in the eastern Donetsk region.
Russia struck areas of eastern and southern Ukraine with artillery and missiles on Friday and Saturday, killing at least three people and injuring others, officials said. The fatal attacks were in Nikopol, Kryvyi Rih and Kherson region.
Three more children have been rescued from Russia and brought back to Ukraine, the Ukrainian parliament’s commissioner for human rights, Dmytro Lubinets, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
More than a third of the territory of Ukraine is contaminated with mines and explosive objects due to the war with Russia, the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine posted on Telegram.
Germany will reportedly provide an additional €200m (£175m) to Ukraine to support the country’s restoration of its education and healthcare systems, its drinking water supplies, and the reconstruction of its cities.
