Russian shelling kills five across Ukraine: officials

Russian strikes killed five people across Ukraine on Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said, as the second anniversary of Moscow’s invasion approaches.

Officials said civilians were killed in the northeast, south and central parts of the country.

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Moscow-installed occupational authorities in eastern Ukraine, meanwhile, said Ukrainian shelling killed three people Tuesday.

The head of the northeastern Kharkiv region, Oleg Synegubov, said three people were killed in his region, which borders Russia and has seen increased attacks in recent months.

Synegubov said a 61-year-old woman was killed when Russian forces shelled the city of Vovchansk that lies seven kilometres (four miles) from the Russian border.

“At the time of the shelling, people were at the local market,” Synegubov said.

The official said “two civilian men” were also killed earlier in the morning when Russia shelled an “agricultural enterprise” in the village of Kurylivka, near the city of Kupiansk.

Moscow’s forces have for months attacked Kupiansk, which fell to Russia in the first days of its invasion in 2022 but was retaken by Ukraine later that same year.

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Separately, the head of the southern Kherson region said an elderly woman was killed when Russian forces shelled the village of Lvove, on the Ukrainian-controlled bank of the Dnipro river.

“An 83-year-old woman received injuries incompatible with life in the yard of her own house,” Oleksandr Prokudin, the regional leader, said on social media.

Authorities in the central Dnipropetrovsk region said a 64-year-old man was killed in the city of Nikopol, also on the Dnipro river.

Russia’s occupational authorities in eastern Ukraine said Ukrainian shelling killed three people in the small town of Kreminna in the Moscow-held Lugansk region.

“As a result of the Ukrainian army’s shelling of Kreminna, three civilians died,” the Moscow-installed government of Lugansk said on social media.

The front in Ukraine has barely moved in months but battles and air attacks have grinded on.

© Agence France-Presse