Slowed on the Battlefield, Russia Widens Bombardment of Ukrainian Cities

Russian forces additionally struck Lutsk, in northwest Ukraine; Ivano-Frankivsk within the southwest; and Dnipro in central Ukraine, the place missiles landed close to a kindergarten, an condo constructing and a two-story shoe manufacturing unit, which broke out in flames, in line with the Ukrainian army.

Throughout Ukraine, at the least 564 civilians have been killed and 982 have been injured by Russian forces which have used heavy artillery, rockets and broadly banned cluster munitions in populated areas, the United Nations mentioned.

“Colleges, hospitals and kindergartens have been hit, with vastly devastating penalties,” Liz Throssell, a spokeswoman for the United Nations human rights workplace, mentioned in Geneva.

Russian forces have attacked at the least 26 hospitals and well being care services, the United Nations mentioned. These strikes have killed 12 folks, together with two well being care staff, and injured 34, eight of them medical staff, Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesman for the World Well being Group, informed reporters by video hyperlink from Lviv in western Ukraine.

The mayor of Melitopol, a small southeastern metropolis that was one of many first to fall to the Russians, was kidnapped by Russian forces on Friday, in line with President Volodymyr Zelensky, who known as it “an indication of the weak point of the invaders.”

The conflict has left tons of of 1000’s of civilians in dire circumstances in besieged cities as meals runs low, clear water provides dry up and entry to medical care turns into scarce. Greater than 2.5 million Ukrainians have fled the nation within the fastest-growing exodus of European refugees since World Conflict II, in line with the United Nations.