Ukrainian authorities said Tuesday that there were heavy casualties in Russian missile strikes far from the front line, but Russian efforts to advance were repulsed.
In the Chernihiv region, north of Kyiv, Vyacheslav Chaus, head of the military administration, said the Russians “fired rockets at the village of Desna this morning. There are dead and many wounded.”
It is not clear what the goal was. Chaus did not give more details. It is right about 40 miles (about 64 kilometers) from the border with Belarus.
Recently, Russian missile and artillery strikes have increased in several border areas as Ukraine’s counter-offensive in the northeast is gaining momentum.
In the northeastern Sumy region, the General Staff of the Ukrainian military said on Tuesday that Russia had fired artillery across the border.
Dmitry Zhivitsky, head of the Sumy region’s military administration, said Russian sabotage and intelligence groups had tried to cross the border. “There was a very serious battle. Mortars, grenade launchers, small arms were used,” he said.
Russian authorities also announced an exchange in the area. Roman Starovoit, governor of Russia’s Kursk region, said at dawn on Tuesday he was fired upon with a large-caliber weapon in a border village and several houses were damaged. He said there were no casualties and Ukrainian border guards fired back.
On the Luhansk and Donetsk fronts, Ukraine reported ongoing efforts by Russian forces to make progress in several areas, but all allegations were denied. The General Staff said that in the highly contested area around Severodonetsk, the Russians had attacked the city of Sirotne, but “suffered losses during the fighting and withdrew their forces.”
But artillery fire and air strikes continue.
The head of the Luhansk military administration, Sergei Haidai, said the Russians had struck two hospital buildings and a production base in Severodonetsk, and there had been air strikes in the Popasna region. In total, he said, 10 civilians were killed in the latest shelling.
Severodonetsk’s main hospital has been hit again, Heidei said, while air strikes in villages to the west destroyed several houses. Video from the area shows large craters among badly damaged houses.
Russian victims: Vadim Denisenko, an adviser at Ukraine’s interior ministry, told Ukrainian television on Tuesday that “enemy losses are numerous.”
“The main events are now around Severodonetsk. The enemy is trying to create an operational environment,” he said.
He also said that night missile strikes in the far west of Ukraine hit an area near Lviv, but did not provide further details.
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