5 killed, dozens wounded in Ukraine’s region, as Russia claims new gains

Volunteers carry a sack with debris in Okhmatdyt, the biggest children’s hospital in Ukraine, in Kyiv on July 12, 2024, amid Russian invasion in Ukraine. The cruise missile slammed into the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in Kyiv leading the toxicology wing to collapse and damaging large portions of surrounding buildings that housed several different medical departments. (Photo by Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP)

KYIV, Ukraine — Five civilians died and 15 more were wounded following Russian strikes on Saturday and overnight in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, its governor said, as Moscow claimed further gains in its monthslong grinding offensive in the country’s war-battered industrial heartland.

Shortly after Donetsk Gov. Vadym Filashkin reported on the casualties Sunday, other local Ukrainian officials said Russian shelling wounded more civilians in the east and south.

At least eight people suffered wounds after Moscow’s forces on Sunday struck the eastern Ukrainian city of Nikopol, local Gov. Serhii Lysak reported that same day. Lysak said a toddler and a 10-year-old girl were among the victims, six of whom had to be hospitalized.

Russian shelling on Sunday also wounded eight further civilians, including a 10-year-old and two teenagers, in a village in Ukraine’s southern Kherson province, local official Roman Mrochko reported.

Russia started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in Feb. 2022, sending millions of people fleeing 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 eke out gains as they pushed westward toward the towns of Pokrovsk and Kurakhove. Russia’s Defense Ministry on Sunday said that its forces had taken control of two neighboring villages some 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 has captured in the province this month.

Earlier on Sunday, Russia’s Defense Ministry 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 went up in flames in the Kursk region, according to acting regional Gov. Alexey Smirnov. Smirnov said nobody was hurt.