[1/2]Ukrainian military personnel load a grenade into a small Partyzan multiple rocket launcher system before firing on Russian troops at a position near a front line during Russia’s assault on Ukraine in Zaporizhia region, Ukraine, July 13, 2023. Portal/Stringer/File Photo
July 16 (Portal) – A civilian was killed and another wounded in Russian shelling in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, while seven were wounded in a village in Zaporizhia, Ukrainian officials said on Sunday.
The Kharkiv and Zaporizhia regions of eastern and south-eastern Ukraine have seen mostly heavy fighting since Moscow invaded its neighbor 17 months ago.
In a move widely condemned as illegal, Russia last year declared that it annexed Zaporizhia and other parts of Ukraine and controlled a nuclear power plant there, the largest in Europe, but the regional capital, the city of Zaporizhia, remains under Kiev control.
Ukraine recaptured much of the eastern Kharkiv region in September, with Russian forces holding only a small strip of land there.
A 33-year-old man died and one man was injured in Russian shooting at residential buildings in the region’s village of Kolodiazne overnight, Kharkiv governor Oleh Sinehubov said on the news app Telegram.
He said Russia fired four S-400 surface-to-air missiles at the city of Kharkiv overnight, slightly damaging a residential building.
The governor of Zaporozhye, Yuriy Malashko, announced on Telegram that on Saturday afternoon three women and four men were injured and several houses were damaged by heavy Russian fire from multiple rocket launchers on the village of Stepnohirske.
Last day there were 48 shots by Russian artillery at several towns and villages in the region, Malashko said.
Russia shelled the city of Zaporizhia, damaging at least 16 buildings, city council secretary Anatoliy Kurtiev told Telegram, adding that one district was without electricity as of Sunday morning.
A Russian-appointed official in Moscow-controlled parts of Zaporizhia Vladimir Rogov said Saturday that Ukrainian forces destroyed a school in the village of Stulneve, while air defense forces intercepted a drone over the town of Tokmak.
Portal could not independently verify the Russian and Ukrainian accounts. Both sides deny having carried out targeted attacks on civilians.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Saturday that it had destroyed several Ukrainian arms depots in the Zaporizhia region over the past day. Ukraine’s top military command said Russia is trying to stop Ukraine’s advance there by shelling the area heavily.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed again on Saturday to liberate the entire Russian-occupied country.
“We cannot leave any of our people, towns and villages under Russian occupation,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address. “Wherever the Russian occupation lasts, there is violence and humiliation of the people.”
Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Edited by Diane Craft and William Mallard
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