Shelling by Ukrainian forces damaged the administration building in the city of Donetsk, the capital of the Donetsk region, the Russian-backed administration of the city said on Sunday.
The main entry into the building was hit and several nearby cars damaged.
“It was a direct hit, the building is seriously damaged. It is a miracle nobody was killed, that’s the main thing,” said the head of the Russian-backed administration of Donetsk, Alexey Kulemzin.
“Administrative work hasn’t been stopped or paralyzed. All city services are working in close co-operation. All activities to ensure the life of our citizens in the city continue.”
There was no immediate reaction from Ukraine to the attack. Donetsk city has been controlled by the Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic since 2014.
Russia moved in September to annex the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, in the biggest attempted expansion of Russian territory in at least half a century.
Moscow declared the annexations after holding what it called referendums in occupied areas of Ukraine. Western governments and Kyiv said the votes breached international law and were coercive and non-representative.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Sunday its forces had repelled efforts by Ukrainian troops to advance in the Donetsk, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, inflicting what it described as significant losses.
Russia also said it was continuing airstrikes on military and energy targets in Ukraine, using long-range precision-guided weapons.
In the 24 hours to Sunday morning, Russian forces targeted more than 30 towns and villages across Ukraine, launching five missile and 23 airstrikes and up to 60 rocket attacks, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said on Sunday. In response, Ukraine’s air forces carried out 32 strikes, hitting 24 Russian targets.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the battlefield reports.
‘This is not war, this is a war crime’
In the city of Mykolaiv, residents lined up on Sunday — as they have been doing for months — to fill water bottles at a distribution point after supplies were severed by fighting early in the war.
“We haven’t had [running drinking] water for around six months. We have technical water from the Southern Buh River, but it’s only technical water that you can’t drink,” said 69-year-old pensioner Volodymr Chernyshov.
Inna Hlushchenko, 39, who works in a local factory, said a water pipeline supplying Mykolaiv with its drinking water, from the village of Kyselivka near Kherson, was blown up at the end of March or beginning of April, and the city has not been able to re-establish the line due to fighting in the area.
“This is not war, this is a war crime. War is when soldiers fight with each other, but when civilians are being fought, it’s a war crime,” said Vadym Antonyuk, a 51-year-old sales manager, as he stood in line.
For the past three months, the city of Mykolaiv has stood as a barrier between Russian troops in Ukraine’s east and cities like Odesa in the west. Residents are patient, live on the razor’s edge.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his forces were still holding the strategic eastern town of Bakhmut despite repeated Russian attacks, while the situation in the larger Donbas region remained very difficult.
Russian forces have repeatedly tried to seize Bakhmut, which sits on a main road leading to the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. Both are situated in the Donetsk region.
Although Ukrainian troops have recaptured thousands of square kilometres of land in recent offensives in the east and south, officials say progress is likely to slow once Kyiv’s forces meet more determined resistance.
Belarus to host thousands of troops
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a strong ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said last week that his troops would deploy with Russian forces near the Ukrainian border, citing what he said were threats from Ukraine and the West.
The Belarusian Defence Ministry in Minsk on Sunday said just under 9,000 Russian troops would be stationed in Belarus as part of a “regional grouping” of forces to protect its borders.
Zelenskyy said almost 65,000 Russians have been killed so far since the Feb. 24 invasion, a figure far higher than Moscow’s official Sept. 21 estimate of 5,937 dead. In August the U.S. Pentagon said Russia has suffered between 70,000 and 80,000 casualties, either killed or wounded.
Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said on the Telegram messaging app on Sunday that Ukraine would prevail in the war because of the continued military aid it is receiving from the West and the cumulative impact of Western sanctions on Russia’s economy.
“Ukraine’s offensive is strategic, and the defeat of Russia is inevitable,” Yermak said.
For all the latest World News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
