Five people killed during Russian shelling in the Ukrainian city of Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region, the Associated Press reported, quoted by BTA.
During the attack, a multi-storey residential building and a private home were hit, announced the regional governor Vadim Filashkin, who specified that the victims were men between the ages of 24 and 38. He urged the rest of the residents to leave the front-line town, which had a population of 12,000 before the war.
„Normal life has been impossible in Chasiv Yar for more than two years. Don't become a Russian target – evacuate”, Filashkin wrote on social networks.
Two more people died in Russian shelling in the Kharkiv region. Regional governor Oleg Sinekhubov reported that one of the victims was pulled from the rubble of a house in the village of Cherkaska Lozova, and the second victim, a woman, died of her wounds while being transported to a hospital.
Russian air defense foiled an attack by a drone that was flying in the direction of the capital Moscow, the mayor of the city, Sergey Sobyanin, announced in Telegram, as quoted by TASS and BTA.
„The air defense forces of the Ministry of Defense in the Podolsk city district repulsed an attack by an unmanned aircraft flying towards Moscow. According to preliminary data, there were no damages or injuries at the place where the debris fell. Specialists of the emergency services are working at the scene of the accident”, the announcement reads.
An air alert was announced during the night in Usmansky district of Lipetsk region, and in Shebekino in the bordering Belgorod region, the town hall reported shelling, and the population was urged to go to shelters. The alert was later cancelled.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is stepping up pressure on the US to allow Kiev to strike deeper into Russian territory after his representatives met with senior US officials in Washington on Saturday, Reuters reported, citing BTA.
Washington has provided Ukraine with military aid worth more than $50 billion from 2022, but limits the use of its weapons to operations on Ukrainian territory and defensive actions across the border.
In his regular evening video address on Saturday, Zelensky noted that homing aerial bombs killed six (later increased to 7 – ed.) and injured 97 people in Kharkiv on Friday. According to him, this could only be prevented “by striking Russian military airports, their bases and the logistics of Russian terror”.
The Ukrainian president said that the matter was being discussed daily with Ukrainian partners and that clearing Ukrainian skies of Russian guided bombs would be a “strong step towards forcing Russia to seek an end to the war and a just peace”.
He appealed to the US, Britain, France and Germany and said: “We need authorizations for long-range capabilities and for your long-range missiles and missiles”.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who was in Washington with a delegation on Friday and Saturday, said in an interview on CNN that Kiev had shown its partners there that Russian airfields used to strike Ukrainian cities were within range of potential deep strikes. “I hope we were heard”, said Umerov.
Zelensky is expected to make a similar appeal in person next month, when he will present his victory plan to US President Joe Biden and attend a meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York.