KYIV/KONSTYANTYNIVKA, Ukraine (Reuters) – Powerful explosions sounded on Saturday morning Mykolav, a city in southern Ukraine near Odessa, a strategic port which was the target of Russian strikes.
“There are powerful explosions in the city! Stay in the shelters!”, wrote the mayor of Mykolav, Oleksandr Senkevich, on the Telegram messaging application.
Sirens announcing airstrikes sounded in the city.
It was not immediately possible to know the origin of these explosions. Russia has nevertheless made it known that it had struck a command post of the Ukrainian army in the region. Reuters was unable to verify the accuracy of this information.
Kyiv says Moscow is stepping up long-range missile fire, hitting civilian targets far from the front line. Russia, for its part, claims that it only targets military sites.
Missiles fired by the Russian army hit a residential building and a Serhiivka hotel complex on Friday, killing at least 21 people and injuring dozens.
Earlier this week another missile hit a shopping mall in Kremenchuk, central Ukraine, killing at least 19 people.
In a video broadcast on Friday evening, Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said the strikes were “deliberate, with the idea of terrorizing, and not some kind of mistake or a chance missile launch”.
The Russian Defense Minister said on Saturday that the army destroyed Ukrainian military sites in Mykolav and the Donbass region with high-precision weapons and struck other military sites in the southern Zaporizhia region and of Kharkiv, further north, Russian news agencies report.
The Russians have gained ground in recent weeks in eastern Ukraine, particularly in the industrial provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk, aided by pro-Russian separatist forces.
According to a separatist source, quoted by the Russian news agency TASS, the Ukrainian army was under intense attack in Lysytchansk. “They will be defeated soon if they don’t surrender,” the source said.
It was not possible to verify the information. The Ukrainian authorities were not immediately available to respond to these allegations.
The Ukrainian army managed, for its part, to regain control of Serpents’ Island on Thursday, a major strategic success for Kyiv which could help ease the blockade imposed by Moscow on the Black Sea ports.
(Report by Reuters offices, French version Caroline Pailliez)
by Iryna Nazarchuk