At least three Ukrainians were killed and 17 more were injured Friday and Saturday by Russian shelling in the east and south of the country, Ukraine officials announced Saturday morning.
In the Donetsk region amid heavy fighting, three were killed and 10 injured in the last day, Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said in an update on social media. That included casualties from a Russian rocket that hit a school, where two people died and six were injured. Another person was injured when a house was hit in the city of Kramatorsk, Kyrylenko said.
Houses were damaged or destroyed in cities around the region over the last day, he said.
The casualties come as fierce clashes have continued in areas of Donetsk where Russian forces have attempted to advance, according to the Ukrainian General Staff. The outskirts of Bakhmut, Lyman and Marinka are front-line hot spots. The Ukrainian General Staff said Russia had staged unsuccessful assault attempts there over the last day.
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Children wounded in strikes on Kherson
Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said two children in Kherson, a 9-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy, were wounded in Russian shelling that hit a residential area Saturday afternoon. He said they are being treated by doctors.
Previously, he said five people including a child were wounded overnight in Kherson. Prokudin said that Russian forces launched 82 artillery, drone, mortar shell and rocket attacks on the province.
Spain’s prime minister visits Kyiv on Saturday
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez started Spain’s six-month presidency of the European Union with a lightning visit to Kyiv on Saturday to show continuing support from Madrid and the European Union for Ukraine’s fight to dislodge invading Russian forces from its territory.
In an address to Ukraine’s parliament that received several standing ovations, Sánchez said, “We’ll be with you as long as it takes.”
“I am here to express the firm determination of the European (Union) and Europe against the illegal and unjustified Russian aggression to Ukraine,” he said on the day that Spain took over the six-month rotating presidency of the 27-nation EU.
Sánchez met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the two are set to give a press conference in the afternoon.
Speaking Friday in Brussels, Sánchez said, “The war in Ukraine will be one of the great priorities of our presidency, with the focus being on guaranteeing the unity (on the issue) among all member states.”
This was Sánchez’s third time in Kyiv since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
-Associated Press
Joint Chiefs of Staff chair says US has considered providing cluster munitions to Ukraine
Gen. Mark Milley, the U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he expects Ukraine’s counteroffensive to be slow-going and difficult. He acknowledged it has taken longer than he predicted, but said that is the nature of war.
“It is advancing steadily, deliberately,” Milley told an audience at the National Press Club on Friday. But, he said, “it’s going to be very difficult, it’s going to be very long, and it’s going to be very, very bloody,” he said.
Ukraine is “fighting for its life,” he said.
Milley also said the United States has considered providing cluster munitions to Ukraine. Cluster bombs open in midair and release submunitions, or “bomblets” that are dispersed over a large area. Milley noted Russia has used them in fighting and that Ukraine had received them from other countries. Cluster munitions are controversial, with opponents arguing they kill indiscriminately and endanger civilians.
Contributing: The Associated Press
