Ukraine: Russian bombing of Donbass and Nikolaev intensifies

LAST UPDATE: 13:37

Russia has pounded Ukrainian forces with airstrikes and artillery in the east and south, targeting command centers, troops and ammunition depots, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday, informing of the war.

According to Reuters, Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, said that the rockets fired from the air hit three command points, 13 areas where troops and Ukrainian military equipment were gathered, as well as four ammunition depots in Don.

In southern Ukraine, and in particular in Nikolaev, Russian missiles hit a mobile anti-drone system near the village of Hanivka, about 100 km northeast of the city of Nikolaev, Konashenkov said.

The rockets and artillery hit 583 areas where troops and Ukrainian military equipment were concentrated, 41 checkpoints, 76 artillery and mortar units at firing points, including three Grad artillery units, and a Ukrainian electronic warfare station near Bukovel (anti-drone). “Hanivka settlement, in the Nikolaev area,” he said.

Russia has destroyed 174 aircraft, 125 helicopters, 977 drones, 317 anti-aircraft missile systems, 3,198 tanks and 40 armored vehicles and 40 armored vehicles since the launch of the “special military operation”, as Moscow calls it, on February 24. multiple missiles, Konashenkov said.

The Ukrainians are talking about 7 civilians killed in Donetsk

Ukrainian authorities on Saturday accused the Russian armed forces of killing seven civilians in the Donetsk region, in the eastern part of the war-torn country under Moscow control.

The three were killed in the city of Liman, Ukrainian Governor Pavlo Kirilenko said via the Telegram platform. He did not say exactly how they lost their lives.

Seven other people were injured, according to the same official, who said “every war criminal will be punished.”

Meanwhile in Kherson, a city occupied by the Russian armed forces, local pro-Russian officials accused the Ukrainian armed forces via Telegram of killing three civilians and wounding ten others in the village of Biloserka, without giving further details.

It is impossible to verify this information independently.

78 women among the captives handed over to Azofstal

Among the captives handed over to the Russian armed forces at the Azofstal steel plant in the port of Mariupol are 78 women, said a pro-Russian separatist leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.

The detainees also include foreigners, according to Dennis Pushilin, who spoke to Russia’s state-run TASS news agency. He did not specify how many, nor their nationalities.

“They had enough food and water, they also had enough weapons. The problem was the lack of medicine,” said Mr Pushilin. He said six Ukrainian soldiers had been killed trying to blow up stored ammunition before being captured.