KRYVYI RIH: A Russian missile strike killed at least 11 people in an apartment building and a warehouse in President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s home town on Tuesday, while Moscow’s forces yielded ground in the early stages of a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Residents sobbed outside the burnt-out apartment block and smoke billowed after the early-morning attack in Kryvyi Rih, a half-hour drive from the huge reservoir emptied last week by the destruction of a dam that flooded a swathe of southern Ukraine.
Officials said at least four people were killed in the apartment building and another seven in the warehouse. Broken glass and bricks were strewn across the street and courtyard outside the apartment block. At least five cars were ruined husks.
“Russian killers continue their war against residential buildings, ordinary cities and people,” Zelenskiy, who was born in the city, said.
Moscow denies intentionally targeting civilians but has repeatedly struck apartment buildings with long-range missiles, often at perceived turning points in the war. It killed 25 people in an apartment block in the central city of Uman six weeks ago, heralding the start of an intensified campaign of drone and missile strikes in the run-up to Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive.
After seven months of a huge Russian offensive that yielded scant gains despite the bloodiest ground combat in Europe since World War Two, Ukraine began its counter assault last week.
So far the offensive is still in its early days, with tens of thousands of fresh Ukrainian troops and hundreds of Western armoured vehicles yet to be committed to the fight.
Confirmed video footage from villages over the past two days show that Ukraine has already captured more ground than at any time since November. But it has yet to pierce Russia’s main defensive lines, which Moscow has had months to prepare.
Russia has also accused Ukraine of cross-border shelling as Kyiv carries out counteroffensive operations. The governor of Kursk in Russia said on Tuesday several houses had been damaged and power supplies disrupted in two villages in the region near the border. Ukraine does not comment on reports of incidents in Russia.
During the early hours of Tuesday, air raid sirens blared across the whole of Ukraine, with Kyiv’s military officials saying air defence forces destroyed all Russian missiles targeting the capital.
Ukraine’s top military command said that air forces destroyed 10 out of 14 cruise missiles Russia launched on Ukraine and one of four drones. — Reuters
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