KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Five civilians died and 15 more were injured after Russian attacks on Saturday and overnight in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, its governor said, while Moscow claimed further gains in their months-long oppressive offensive in the war-torn industrial heart of the country.
Shortly after Donetsk Governor Vadym Filashkin reported the casualties on Sunday, other local Ukrainian officials said Russian shelling had injured more civilians in the east and south.
At least eight people were injured after Moscow forces attacked the city of Nikopol in eastern Ukraine on Sunday, local governor Serhii Lysak said the same day. Lysak said a child and a 10-year-old girl were among the victims, six of whom had to be hospitalized.
Russian shelling on Sunday also injured eight other civilians, including a 10-year-old child and two teenagers, in a village in Ukraine’s southern Kherson province, local official Roman Mrochko said.
Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, causing millions of people to flee to neighboring countries. Taking control of all of Donetsk is one of the Kremlin’s main war goals.
In the Donetsk region, Russian troops continued to make gains as they advanced west toward the cities of Pokrovsk and Kurakhove. Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday that its forces had taken control of two neighboring villages, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) east of Pokrovsk, Prohres and Yevhenivka. The day before, Moscow claimed the nearby village of Lozuvatske, one of nearly a dozen it says it captured in the province this month.
Earlier on Sunday, Russian Ministry of Defense said seven Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight over Russian territory, while a regional official said a drone strike set fire to an oil depot in southern Russia. Firefighters were battling the blaze on Sunday morning after three fuel tanks caught fire in the Kursk region, according to acting regional governor Alexey Smirnov. Smirnov said no one was injured.
