KYIV: Russian strikes on a southern Ukrainian town and villages in the embattled Donetsk region killed 10 people on Saturday, Kyiv said.

The attacks came after months of Ukrainian forces being on the back foot militarily, with Moscow launching several offensives in recent weeks. The head of the southern Zaporizhzhia region, Ivan Fedorov, said an attack on the town of Vilniansk killed six civilians.

“Russians attacked the town of Vilniansk in Zaporizhzhia district. Preliminarily, six civilians and eight residents were wounded,” Fedorov said on social media.

“A critical infrastructure facility, a shop and residential buildings were damaged,” he added. Vilniansk lies 29 kilometres north-east of the city of Zaporizhzhia, the main regional city which is under Ukrainian control. Russia occupies large swathes of the region.

Moscow says it has annexed the Zaporizhzhia region, despite not controlling it fully.

Russia has attacked Zaporizhzhia and nearby towns throughout its offensive but in recent weeks has concentrated its efforts mostly on the east of the country rather than the south. Ukrainian officials also said that earlier attacks on frontline villages in the eastern Donetsk region killed four people.

“In (the village of) Zarichne, Russians killed three people,” Vadym Filashkin, the head of the Donetsk region, said on social media.

Ukraine’s General Prosecutor later said that another person, a resident of the frontline village of New York “also sustained fatal injuries.” New York has been intensely attacked since mid-June as Russian forces push towards the city of Toretsk.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2024