The Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday that Russian forces had hit fuel and telecommunications infrastructure in Kiev, as well as several cargo ships it said were delivering weapons to the Ukrainian army, Reuters reported.
The ministry said Russia had hit three cargo ships heading to Odessa and another in the port of Chernomorsk. Ship repair facilities in the Ukrainian port of Izmail were also hit, Moscow added.
The ministry added that several data centers in Kiev were hit in attacks overnight and during the day.
Reuters makes the reservation that it cannot independently confirm this information.
Russian bombings on Ukrainian territory since the night have killed at least 7 people and injured more than 50, the Associated Press reported, citing information from Ukrainian government officials today.
Moscow's forces have struck residential buildings, offices, statistical centers and a cultural landmark - the building of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in the center of the capital Kiev. The incessant Russian drone attacks on cities and towns are aimed at exhausting Ukrainian resistance forces and paralyzing the Ukrainian economy. The attacks followed a week of diplomatic efforts at the United Nations to make progress in talks to end Moscow's war that began more than four and a half years ago.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that the chances of rapid progress towards a peace deal were minimal after recent Ukrainian attacks, including during Russia's parliamentary elections.
“Ukraine will have to pay the price for its actions in recent months,” Peskov told reporters. “This is happening right now,” he added.
Russian drone strikes in the Kiev region have killed four people and wounded eight, local authorities said. A woman was killed in a Russian strike in Kiev's Shevchenkivskyi district on Tuesday afternoon, the city's military administration said. The strike hit the building of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine – Another cultural landmark in the capital that suffers damage, AP reports. Russian forces also struck a pharmaceutical company and gas stations in Kiev.
A drone struck an office building in the center of the city of Dnipro (Dnipro in Ukrainian) during business hours today, killing three people and wounding at least 12, local authorities said.
In other news, a Russian attack on a nine-story apartment building in the northeastern city of Kharkiv wounded 43 people, including 11 children, Mayor Igor Terekhov said.
Four people, including two teenage girls, were injured when a strike hit a residential area in Chernihiv region in northern Ukraine last night, the head of the Chernihiv regional military administration, Vyacheslav Chaush, said.
For its part, Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces had struck two statistical centers in Kiev, as well as gas stations in the Ukrainian capital. A logistics center for the postal service "Nova Poshta" in the Black Sea city of Odessa was reportedly hit.
Russian forces also hit a cargo ship in the Black Sea and a vessel in the Ukrainian port of Chernomorsk, the Russian Defense Ministry said. The strikes are aimed at limiting grain exports from Ukraine. They could also cause food shortages in countries that rely on Ukrainian imports, the AP notes.
Russian air strikes regularly hit civilian targets. Moscow says its armed forces target only those with military significance.
The front lines have changed little since last year - partly because swarms of drones have severely restricted troop movements - but Kiev forces recently launched an offensive codenamed "Vivaldi" in a section of the front line with a length of 1250 kilometers.
The Third Army of Ukraine announced today that they had recaptured another 51 square kilometers of territory from Russian forces, bringing the total area liberated since the start of the offensive several months ago to 176 square kilometers.
The army reported that in order to break through the Russian defenses, its units used Soviet BTR-60 armored personnel carriers as kamikazes, with which the most fortified Russian positions were blown up. The operation also used ground-based robots to attack Russian fortifications.
The reported breakthroughs were made in the Donetsk region, in eastern Ukraine - territory that the larger Russian army is trying unsuccessfully to seize, the AP emphasized.
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that Russian troops had captured the villages of Novovodyanoe (Novovodyan in Ukrainian) in Donetsk region and Ulanovo (Ulanovye) in northern Sumy region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that long-range strikes on Russian territory had hit two military plants in the Tula and Voronezh regions, as well as oil facilities in the Krasnodar region.
The Ukrainian military has repeatedly used long-range drones to attack Russian fuel depots and industrial facilities that are key to Moscow's economy and military operations. Ukrainian drone attacks overnight caused fires at three infrastructure facilities in Russia's Krasnodar region, local emergency services said today, without specifying their location.
Russia's Defense Ministry said its air defenses had shot down 254 Ukrainian drones overnight.