Weekend shelling by Russian forces killed at least seven civilians as around the world religious leaders used Easter messages to call for peace.
While Russia continued to concentrate on seizing all of Ukraine’s industrial east, two other provinces — Kharkiv in the north-east and Zaporizhzhia in the south-east — came under missile, rocket and artillery fire, the Ukrainian military reported.
The governor of the Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said two communities there were hit by bombs from warplanes late Sunday.
Kharkiv governor Oleh Syniehubov said two men died on Sunday in shelling in Kupiansk, a city that Russia held before Ukrainian forces regained control of almost all of the province.
The city remained under attack later on Sunday as Russian forces targeted residential areas with multiple rocket launchers.
Shelling also killed two people overnight, one of them a child born in 2012, in the city of Zaporizhzhia.
The Zaporizhzhia region’s governor, Yurii Malashko, said 18 communities in all were shelled. Three people were killed and five were wounded on Saturday, Mr Malashko said.
Zaporizhzhia is home to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and one of four Ukrainian provinces that Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed in September.
Since then, Russia’s military has sought to oust Ukraine’s troops from those areas, especially Luhansk and Donetsk provinces, which make up the industrial region known as the Donbas.
Bakhmut, a city in Donestsk, has seen the 13-month war’s longest battle.
Seizing Bakhmut after more than eight months would give the Kremlin a badly wanted victory and a path to push on toward bigger Ukrainian-held cities, analysts say.
The Russian army is moving elite units to Bakhmut, Colonel Serhiy Cherevaty, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s Eastern Group of Forces, said on Sunday.
The vast majority of Ukrainians with a religious affiliation identify as Orthodox Christian, a faith that observes Easter on April 16 this year. Some Catholics celebrated Easter on Sunday, while Orthodox churches marked Palm Sunday this weekend.
While delivering his Easter address from the central balcony of the Vatican’s St Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis implored God to help the Ukrainian people on their journey towards peace.
Between Saturday and Sunday mornings, Russian forces launched 40 air strikes, four missile strikes and 58 attacks from multiple-rocket launchers on various parts of Ukraine, the General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces reported.
