At least 10 civilians in Ukraine were killed on Wednesday in Russian attacks as Ukrainian military officials confirmed battlefield gains in counteroffensive operations in the south of the warzone.
The death toll rose to five from four after a missile struck a residential building in southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, president Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video address.
A 31-year-old woman was killed in a separate attack in central Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk. Officials said she was a resident of the Obukhivka village. Another Russian attack claimed the lives of a man and woman in Kherson, officials said.
Two bodies were pulled out from under the rubble of a food shop hit by a Russian missile near the southern city of Mykolaiv on Wednesday evening, the Ukrainian interior ministry said.
Russian forces also tried to target “an infrastructure site” which was hit in a drone attack in Sumy region, which has seen intense shelling since the start of war, local officials said but shared no further details.
Mr Zelensky said: “The evil state continues to use terror and wage war on civilians. Russian terror must be defeated”.
Russia has repeatedly claimed that it only targets military sites and infrastructures, not civilians, but dozens of indiscriminate missile and drone strikes into Ukraine have claimed more than 26,000 civilian lives since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion last year.
This comes as the Ukrainian general Oleksandr Tarnavskyi in the southern region has said his troops were proceeding with their planned advance towards the Sea of Azov.
Troops from the Tavria, or southern group of forces, "are continuing their offensive. They have had partial success to the south of Robotyne," General Tarnavskyi wrote on Telegram.
Robotyne is one of a group of villages in the south that Ukraine wants to secure as part of the advance – aimed at severing a land bridge linking Russian positions in the south and east.
Oleksandr Shtupun, a spokesperson for southern troops, also reported progress near Robotyne.
He said shelling had eased around the town of Avdiivka, the focus of fierce Russian attacks in the past week west of the Russian-held town of Donetsk. But troops in the sector were preparing for a variety of scenarios.
Ukrainian troops are also trying to recapture land in eastern regions.
The troops have repelled Russian attacks in several areas of the 1000 km (620-mile) frontline, the General Staff of the Ukraine’s Armed Forces said. It added that 15 attacks were repelled around the long-contested town of Maryinka in Donetsk region and 10 further north near another heavily besieged town Kupiansk.
Russia’s account of the fighting said a depot of Ukrainian aviation equipment had been destroyed in the central Dnipropetrovsk region.
