Russian attacks kill eight in east Ukraine

Russian attacks killed at least eight people in eastern Ukraine yesterday, authorities said, as President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of cynically targeting civilians.
Russian forces have stepped up their aerial bombardments in recent weeks, with Zelensky calling nearly daily for his Western backers to deliver air defence systems to save Ukrainian lives.
“A few air defence systems could fundamentally change the situation,” Zelensky said in an evening address posted on social media. “It is totally unacceptable that so many countries in the world are still thinking about how to counter terror, even though only a few political decisions are needed.”
Drone attacks on Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv killed four people, including three rescuers responding to an earlier strike, Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said.
At least 12 others were injured in what Zelensky a “despicable and cynical attack”.
“When the rescuers arrived at the scene of the strike, the terrorists attacked again,” he said.
In a separate incident, Russian artillery fire killed two – a married couple aged 53 and 51 – in the town of New York in the eastern Donetsk region, the regional Prosecutor’s Office said.
Another strike killed a man in a tractor in the Kharkiv region, the governor said, and an aerial bomb killed an energy worker in the neighbouring Sumy region, Ukraine’s energy ministry said.
Kyiv is facing a shortage of both ammunition for its troops on the front lines and air defence systems to protect its cities from Russian aerial attacks.
US military aid to Ukraine has been drying up, with a new $60bn funding package currently stalled in Congress.
Russia also accused Ukraine of striking civilians in areas occupied by its forces yesterday.
Ukrainian drones killed two people in the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, Moscow-installed official Andrey Alekseyenko said.
The Russian installed head of the Donetsk region – which Moscow claims to have annexed – said two civilians were killed and nine injured in Ukrainian attacks.
Zelensky also said his forces had managed to “stabilise” their positions on the battlefield, despite a “shortage of shells and a significant slowdown in supplies”.
Earlier this year Russian forces had made their first major territorial gains in nine months, with the capture of Avdiivka in February.
Moscow has since sought to press its advantage on the battlefield and says that it is advancing westwards, deeper into Ukraine.