[1/2]Ukrainian servicemen load a shell into a Partyzan small multiple rocket launch system before firing toward Russian troops at a position near a front line, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine July 13, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer/File photo
July 16 (Reuters) – A civilian was killed and another wounded in Russian shelling in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, while seven were injured in a village in Zaporizhzhia, Ukrainian officials said on Sunday.
The Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia regions in Ukraine’s east and southeast have seen fierce combat throughout much of the 17 months since Moscow invaded its neighbour, with Kyiv’s forces fighting to liberate areas Russian forces now occupy.
In a move widely condemned as illegal, Russia said last year it was annexing Zaporizhzhia and other parts of Ukraine, and it controls a nuclear power plant there, Europe’s largest, but the regional capital, the city of Zaporizhzhia, remains under Kyiv’s control.
Ukraine recaptured much of the eastern Kharkiv region in September, with Russian forces occupying now only a small strip of land there.
A 33-year-old man died and a man was wounded in Russian firing at residential buildings in the village of Kolodiazne in the region overnight, Oleh Sinehubov, Kharkiv’s governor, said on the Telegram messaging app.
He said Russia had launched four S-400 surface-to-air missiles overnight at the city of Kharkiv, slightly damaging a residential building.
Zaporizhzhia Governor Yuriy Malashko posted on Telegram that three women and four men were injured and a number of houses damaged in heavy Russian shelling from multiple rocket launchers on the village of Stepnohirske on Saturday afternoon.
Over the past day, there had been 48 instances of Russian artillery firing on a number of towns and villages in the region, Malashko said.
Russia shelled the city of Zaporizhzhia, damaging at least 16 buildings, Anatoliy Kurtiev, secretary of the city council, said on Telegram, adding that one district was without electricity on Sunday morning.
A Russian-installed official in parts of Zaporizhzhia controlled by Moscow, Vladimir Rogov, said on Saturday that Ukrainian forces had destroyed a school in the village of Stulneve, while air defence forces intercepted a drone over the city of Tokmak.
Reuters could not independently verify the Russian and Ukrainian accounts. Both sides deny targeting civilians.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Saturday it had destroyed a number of Ukrainian weapons depots in Zaporizhzhia region over the past day. Ukraine’s top military command said Russia was trying to stop Ukraine’s advance there, heavily shelling the area.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed again on Saturday to liberate all the land that Russia occupies.
“We cannot leave any of our people, any towns and villages under Russian occupation,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. “Wherever the Russian occupation continues, violence and humiliation of people reign.”
Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Diane Craft and William Mallard
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