• Ukraine hit by Russian missiles, killing at least 11 and leaving several injured in Zelenskyy’s hometown

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    Ukraine hit by Russian missiles, killing at least 11 and leaving several injured in Zelenskyy’s hometown

    The neighbouring ground was littered with charred and broken vehicles.

    Digital Desk: According to
    regional officials, Russian missiles rained down on a central Ukrainian city
    overnight, killing at least 11 people and injuring more than two dozen others
    in a warehouse and an apartment block.



    The attack in Kryvyi Rih,
    President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown, comes as Ukrainian forces launch a
    counteroffensive 15 months after Russia invaded.



    In recent weeks, Russian
    forces have launched multiple nocturnal missile strikes against Ukrainian
    targets, and Tuesday's toll was among the greatest from a single attack. In
    late April, missiles struck an apartment block in Uman's central business
    district, killing 23 people, including six children.



    Firefighters fought a blaze
    as flames peeked through broken windows in the damaged apartment block,
    according to images provided by Zelenskyy on his Telegram channel. The
    neighbouring ground was littered with charred and broken vehicles.


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    "More terrorist
    missiles," he scribbled. "Russian killers continue their war against
    residential buildings, ordinary cities, and people."Serhiy Lysak, the
    governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, stated on Telegram that seven people's
    bodies were retrieved from a private company's warehouse, and that
    "another four destinies were cut short" inside the apartment complex.
    He stated that the search had been suspended.



    On the social networking
    app, Kryvyi Rih Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul stated that 28 people were injured.



    According to Russia's
    Defence Ministry, its military fired missiles targeting Ukrainian operating
    reserves as well as a warehouse of Western weaponry and ammunition. It said
    that all of the facilities targeted had been hit.



    Meanwhile, Kharkiv,
    Ukraine's second-largest city, was assaulted with Iranian-made Shahed drones,
    and the surrounding region was shelled, according to local Gov. Oleh Syniehubov
    on Telegram. Two individuals were injured in the bombardment in Shevchenkove,
    southeast of Kharkiv.



    Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of
    Kharkiv, said separately early Tuesday that the drone strike destroyed a
    utilities company and a warehouse in the city's northeast. Terekhov and
    Syniehubov made no mention of any casualties in Kharkiv.



    The military government in
    Kyiv claimed that the capital was again targeted on Tuesday, but the inbound
    missiles were intercepted by air defences, and there were no early reports of
    deaths.



    Air defences knocked down 10
    of 14 cruise missiles and one of four Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by
    Russian forces overnight, according to Ukraine's General Staff on its Facebook
    page.



    Meanwhile, Ukraine's deputy
    defence minister, Hanna Maliar, told Ukrainian TV that offensive operations
    were still underway in four areas in the south and east: near the town of
    Orikhiv in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, near the city of Bakhmut in the
    eastern Donetsk region, around the town of Marinka in the Luhansk region, and
    near Lyman in the Luhansk region.



    Ukraine's ground army
    commander claimed the country's soldiers were "moving forward"
    outside Bakhmut. On Telegram, Oleksandr Syrskyi stated that Russian soldiers are
    "losing positions on the flanks."



    Ukrainian officials have
    been claiming tiny gains west of Bakhmut for weeks, which was largely destroyed
    in the war's longest and bloodiest combat before Moscow's forces gained control
    last month.



    According to Zelenskyy's
    administration, around a dozen front-line towns and villages in Ukrainian-held
    portions of Donetsk have come under intensified shelling as Ukrainian soldiers
    advance.



    Also on Tuesday, the Russian
    Defence Ministry released a video purportedly showing a German-made Leopard 2
    tank and an American-made Bradley fighting vehicle recovered from Ukrainian
    forces. According to the ministry, the footage was filmed by Russian military
    following intense battle in Zaporizhzhia, and a soldier can be seen pointing to
    the immobilised trucks. It was not able to confirm the video's validity right
    away.



    Battle zones in
    Zaporizhzhia, like those in Bakhmut, are among numerous locations along the
    nearly 600-mile front line where Ukrainian forces have increased their
    counteroffensive operations.



    Vladimir Rogov, an official
    with the Moscow-appointed administration for Russia-controlled parts of
    Zaporizhzhia, claimed that the Ukrainian counteroffensive had failed, telling
    state news agency RIA-Novosti that Ukrainian forces "continue to suffer
    colossal losses when they make new attempts to advance." He did not
    elaborate, and his statements could not be verified quickly.



    On Monday, Ukraine's deputy
    defence minister, Maliar, said the country's military had recaptured seven
    villages covering 35 square miles of eastern Ukraine in the previous week,
    minor victories in the early stages of a counteroffensive.



    Russian officials refused to
    confirm Ukraine's advances, which were impossible to verify and may be reversed
    in the ups and downs of battle.



    The progress covered only a
    limited area, emphasising the hardship of the war ahead for Ukrainian soldiers,
    who will have to fight metre by metre to reclaim about one-fifth of their
    country from Russian rule.