Over the weekend, Russian forces reportedly carried out dozens of attacks on various parts of Ukraine.
At least seven civilians were killed in weekend shelling by Russian troops, Ukrainian officials have reported, as Pope Francis used his traditional Easter message to highlight the war in Ukraine.
As Russia continued to focus on conquering the entire industrial east of Ukraine, two other provinces — Kharkiv in the northeast and Zaporizhia in the southeast — came under rocket, missile and artillery fire, the Ukrainian military reported on Sunday.
Kharkiv governor Oleh Syniehubov said two men were killed on Sunday in shelling in Kupiansk, a city held by Russia before Ukrainian forces regained control of nearly the entire province.
The city continued to be attacked later on Sunday as Russian troops attacked residential areas with multiple rocket launchers, Syniehubov said.
Elsewhere in the province, a 30-year-old man was hospitalized in serious condition after Russian shelling of the town of Chuhuiv, he said on Telegram.
A 50-year-old man and his 11-year-old daughter were killed on Sunday after Russian troops attacked a residential building in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, the capital of Zaporizhia province, early Sunday, according to city council secretary Anatoliy Kurtev.
Zaporizhia region governor Yurii Malashko said 18 communities were shelled. Three people were killed and five were injured on Saturday, Malashko said.
Home to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhia is one of four Ukrainian provinces illegally annexed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in September. Since then, the Russian military has been trying to remove Ukrainian troops from those areas, especially Luhansk and Donetsk provinces, which together form the industrial region of Donbas.
Bakhmut, a city in Donetsk, has experienced the longest battle of the 13-month war. Western analysts say Russian troops have recently entered the center of the city. The capture of Bakhmut after more than eight months would give the Kremlin a much-coveted victory and a path to push into larger Ukrainian-held cities.
The Russian army is moving elite units to Bakhmut, Colonel Serhiy Cherevaty, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Eastern Group of Forces, said on Sunday.
Cherevaty said the Wagner Group, a private Russian military company whose fighters led the offensive on Bakhmut, suffered heavy casualties, necessitating the deployment of regular army units, including paratroopers and self-propelled gunners.
Easter address
The vast majority of Ukrainians of religious affiliation identify as Orthodox Christian, a faith that celebrates Easter on April 16 this year. Some Catholics celebrated Easter on Sunday, while Orthodox churches celebrated Palm Sunday this weekend.
While delivering his Easter address from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, Pope Francis of the Catholic Church asked God to “help the beloved Ukrainian people on their journey to peace, and to shine the light of Easter upon the people of Russia”.
“Comfort the wounded and all those who have lost loved ones to the war, and grant that prisoners can return to their families safe and sound,” Francis said.
Between Saturday and Sunday morning, Russian forces launched 40 airstrikes, four rocket attacks and 58 multiple rocket launcher attacks on various parts of Ukraine, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported.
According to the General Staff, Russia targeted the communities in Donetsk province, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka. Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Sunday morning that two civilians were injured on Saturday.
Officials in Kherson province, where Ukrainian troops forced a partial Russian retreat in November, said the southern region also suffered numerous attacks. They reported no casualties.