Four people were killed in Ukraine on Sunday as Russian strikes damaged a hospital, a school and an apartment building.
An elderly woman was killed and three other people injured when a missile struck a block of flats in the country’s second most-populous city Kharkiv, during the evening.
Images from the scene showed fire engulfing part of the residential building.
Regional governor Oleh Synehubov said: “Three people were slightly injured. Unfortunately, an elderly woman was killed.
“Her husband was nearby when the strike occurred and by a miracle suffered no serious injuries.”
Three other people were killed and six injured during Russian strikes on the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson that damaged a hospital and a school on Sunday, the regional administration said.
Russian troops occupied Kherson shortly after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and held the city until Ukrainian forces recaptured it in November. Since its liberation, the city has regularly been shelled from Russian positions across the Dnipro river.
Meanwhile fighting also raged in the eastern Donetsk region on Sunday where Russia again shelled the key town of Vuhledar, Ukrainian officials said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine was facing a difficult situation in Donetsk and needed faster weapons supplies and new types of weaponry. His message came just days after Western allies agreed to provide Kyiv with heavy battle tanks to bolster its efforts to defeat Russia 11 months after Vladimir Putin launched his invasion.
“The situation is very tough. Bakhmut, Vuhledar and other sectors in Donetsk region – there are constant Russian attacks,” Mr Zelensky said in a video address late on Sunday.
“Russia wants the war to drag on and exhaust our forces. So we have to make time our weapon. We have to speed up events, speed up supplies and open up new weapons options for Ukraine.”
Russia on Saturday accused the Ukrainian military of deliberately striking a hospital in a Russian-held area of eastern Ukraine, killing 14 people. There was no response to the allegations from Ukraine.
Ukraine’s General Staff said in a statement late on Sunday that Russian forces had shelled Bakhmut, the focus of Moscow’s offensive in the eastern Donetsk region, as well as Vuhledar to the south-west where fighting has intensified in recent days.
Ukrainian military analyst and colonel, Mykola Salamakha, told Ukrainian Radio NV that Russian troops were mounting waves of attacks on Vuhledar.
“From this location we control practically the entire rail system used by the Russians for logistics... The town is on an upland and an extremely strong defensive hub has been created there,” he said.
“This is a repetition of the situation in Bakhmut – one wave of Russian troops after another crushed by the Ukrainian armed forces.”
News agency Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield reports.
