Russian attacks[/B] on the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine yesterday killed 21 civilians and wounded 27, said the region's governor Pavlo Kirilenko in an online post.
Kirilenko said the figure, which included 10 deaths at a coke factory in the city of Avdiivka reported earlier, was the highest daily death toll in the region since last month's attack on a railway station in the city of Kramatorsk. More than 50 people were killed in that attack.
Meanwhile, Russian army units are attempting to push further into the Donbas region (east) from the north to encircle Ukrainian forces there, the Ukrainian General Staff said yesterday.
Tank, infantry and paratrooper units hit targets on the front line between Izium and Barvenkov, it noted. To support their advance, "the invaders moved arrays of 240mm Tyulpan heavy mortars and Smirch multiple rocket launchers from the Bylgorod area to that of Izium," always according to the Ukrainian General Staff.
Russian units also attacked the cities of Lyman, Severodonetsk, Popasna, Avdiivka and Kurakhova, continuing their assault on Lyman, Shiversk and Sloviansk, the staff briefing also said, in which it was unclear whether they made territorial gains.
Also, several Ukrainian cities were targeted last night by Russian missiles, which mostly destroyed three power stations in Lviv, according to the mayor of this large city in the west of the country that now has a partial power outage.
Three power stations were damaged after a missile attack, Mayor Andrii Sandovi said via Telegram messaging app, adding that pumping stations were without power because of the damage. At least one person was injured, he added. According to Ukrainian media, the power outages affected several neighborhoods in Lviv. Bombings were also reported by local authorities in Vinnytsia (central), Odessa (southwest) and Kirovograd (central), without reporting the damage.
At the same time, Ukraine's government accused Russia of removing 400,000 tons of grain from areas of the country occupied by its armed forces since February 24. This is roughly a third of the grain reserves in Kherson, Zaporizhzhya, Daniyetsk and Lugansk, Ukraine's Agriculture Minister Taras Visotsky summarized, speaking on Ukrainian state television last night.
Before the conflict broke out, 1.3 million tons of grain were stored in these regions for daily supplies and for sowing. "There were no strategic stocks," the minister said, warning that if available quantities were further reduced, there was a risk of famine.
In another development, Russia will boycott a meeting of the UN Security Council and the European Union's Political and Security Committee (PSC) today, a reflection of the continuing rapid deterioration of relations between Moscow and its UN partners, diplomatic sources said.
Source: CNA
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