Ukraine war: Kyiv reports dead and injured in shelling

According to Ukrainian sources, at least five civilians were killed and five others injured in shelling in the Donetsk region. The Russian artillery also shelled settlements in the north-eastern region of Kharkov.

According to Ukrainian sources, at least five civilians were killed and five others injured in Russian attacks in the Donetsk region. The local military administration blamed Russia for the victims.

Russian artillery shelled settlements in the north-eastern region of Kharkiv yesterday, Ukrainian authorities said. At least two people were killed and one person injured. Many houses were destroyed. In the Mykolayiv region in the south, the Ukrainian military counted seven rocket attacks by the Russian army, it said. Nobody was killed in the process.

Ukrainian forces, for their part, killed 80 soldiers and destroyed three tanks and one airplane and one helicopter each in three attacks on Russian troops yesterday. The information cannot be independently verified.

More evacuations planned

According to the Presidential Office in Kyiv, more than 4,500 civilians from the Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhia regions were able to flee yesterday. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Wereshchuk accused Russia of not allowing buses for refugees to pass on certain routes, despite an agreement. “The buses have returned to Zaporizhia and will try again on Sunday to reach the cities to evacuate our citizens,” Vereshchuk said.

Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of sabotaging the evacuation of towns.

Focus of hostilities in eastern Ukraine

Moscow recently announced that it would focus combat operations on eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi spoke of preparations “for an important – some say the decisive – battle in the east of our country.” He confirmed Russian troop concentrations in the region. “A large number of troops, technology and weapons. Armed people who want to occupy another part of our country,” said Zelenskyy. It’s going to be a tough battle.

According to the US Department of Defense, it is also observing that the Russian armed forces are trying to rebuild their units with new material and soldiers. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby mentioned reports that the units were to be mobilized by mobilizing “tens of thousands of reservists”. According to a senior Pentagon official, Russia has already massed thousands of additional troops near the border with the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.