KYIV: At least six people died overnight as Russian drone and missile strikes pounded Ukraine’s towns and cities, local officials said Saturday.
Meanwhile, Moscow’s troops continued their grinding advance through the country’s east.
A Russian missile strike on an apartment block in the Ukrainian city of Poltava killed at least five people and injured 13 more, including three children, Ukraine’s emergency services reported.
Some 22 people were rescued from the five-story building, which partially collapsed following the attack, said the Poltava region’s acting governor, Volodymyr Kohut. He also announced that the region would observe three days of mourning for the victims of the attack. Rescue teams remain at the site.
Elsewhere, a 60-year-old woman was killed by falling debris from a downed drone in the Kharkiv region, local Gov. Oleh Syniehubov wrote on social media.
The bombardment comes as Russian forces continue their monthslong campaign to capture the key Donetsk strongholds of Pokrovsk and nearby Chasiv Yar, fighting their way across farm fields and woodland and engulfing small rural settlements.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Saturday that its troops had taken control of Krymske, a suburb to the north of the contested frontline town of Toretsk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Russian troops have been fighting for the settlement in a grinding assault throughout the winter of 2024. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said last week that it expected the Russians to take full control of Toretsk “within days.” “Last night, Russia launched an attack on our cities using various types of weapons: missiles, attack drones, and aerial bombs,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media Saturday.
“Every such act of terror proves that we need greater support in defending against Russian terror. Every air defense system, every interceptor missile, means a life saved.”
The full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine, which began nearly three years ago and shows no signs of ending, has killed more than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the United Nations.
Many have been evacuated from areas along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line where Ukrainian defenses are straining to hold the bigger Russian army at bay.
Civilians have endured hardship caused by Russian attacks on the power grid that have denied them heating and running water. Saturday’s missile attack prompted emergency power grid shutdowns in seven Ukrainian regions, including Poltava, state energy company Ukrenergo said.
Ukrainian strikes also hit Russia, with air defenses intercepting nine drones across the country’s Bryansk, Belgorod and Saratov regions, Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement Saturday morning.