Kyiv: Three people were killed by Russian missile strikes in Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine, as fighting raged in the eastern Donetsk region and Russia shelled the vital town of Vuhledar once more, according to Ukrainian officials.
Just days after allies agreed to give Kyiv heavy battle tanks, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy declared that Ukraine was in a challenging situation in Donetsk and needed quicker weapon supplies and new kinds of weapons.
"It's a very difficult situation. Russian attacks on Bakhmut, Vuhledar, and other areas of the Donetsk region are ongoing "Late on Sunday, Zelenskiy spoke in a video address.
"Russia wants to prolong the conflict and use all of our resources. Therefore, we must use time as a weapon. Events must move more quickly, supplies must arrive more quickly, and Ukraine must have access to new weapons."
According to the regional administration, Russian airstrikes on Kherson on Sunday resulted in the deaths of three people and the injuries of six others.
Kherson was taken over by Russian forces soon after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and they held the city until Ukrainian forces took it back in November. Since it was freed, Russian positions across the Dnipro River have frequently shelled the city.
Oleh Synehubov, the regional governor, reported that a missile that hit an apartment building in the northeastern town of Kharkiv later on Sunday killed an elderly woman.
On Saturday, Russia charged the Ukrainian military with deliberately hitting a hospital in an area of eastern Ukraine that was under Russian control and killing 14. The allegations received no response from Ukraine.
Russian forces shelled Bakhmut, the center of Moscow's offensive in the eastern Donetsk region, as well as Vuhledar to the southwest, where fighting has gotten worse recently, according to a statement from Ukraine's General Staff late on Sunday.
Colonel Mykola Salamakha of Ukraine, a military analyst, claimed to Ukrainian Radio NV that Russian forces were launching waves of assaults on Vuhledar.
"We essentially have control over the entire Russian rail network from here, which is used for logistics." "The town has been fortified as a very powerful defensive hub because it is located on an upland," he said.
"This is a repetition of the events in Bakhmut, where successive waves of Russian troops were routed by the Ukrainian military."
The casualties on Sunday occurred three days after at least 11 people were killed in missile attacks that Kyiv perceived as the Kremlin's response to the allies of Ukraine's promise to provide battle tanks.
Germany and the US announced last week that they would send Ukraine dozens of tanks to help push back Russian forces after weeks of negotiations, clearing the way for other nations to follow suit.
Allies have promised Ukraine more than 300 heavy tanks, but it may be months before they arrive on the front lines. As both sides in the conflict are anticipated to launch spring offensives, Ukraine is eager to expedite the delivery of heavy weapons. According to a senior aide, discussions about long-range missiles are currently taking place between Kyiv and its allies.
Zelenskiy said he had sent a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron as part of his campaign to keep Russian athletes out of the Paris Olympic Games. "Attempts by the International Olympic Committee to bring Russian athletes back into the Olympic Games are attempts to tell the whole world that terror is somehow acceptable," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
Referring to the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin when the Nazis were in power, he said: "The Olympic movement and terrorist states definitely should not cross paths." Russia, he said, must not be allowed to "use (the Games) or any other sporting event as propaganda for its aggression or its state chauvinism."
In order to repel a belligerent West and "denazify" the nation, Russia claims to have started its "special military operation" in Ukraine. The invasion, according to Ukraine and its allies, was an unprovoked act of aggression.