In Kharkiv in the northeast, Russian rockets hit homes where at least seven civilians are said to have been killed, and 17 injured, the city’s mayor Igor Terekhov said on Telegram.
“What happened on Wednesday night proved once again that this is not a war between two armies. They are fighting for our death as a people. That is why they are attacking houses. And we are fighting for our lives. And no matter how much Ukraine and Kharkiv are bombed we will not only survive, but also win,” he writes.
Several cities attacked
There is concern about a Russian build-up in the north, along the border with Belarus, Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny says in a statement. According to him, robotic systems have been set up there, while the Russian bombardment along the entire front is intense.
“The enemy is carrying out about 700-800 artillery attacks on our positions daily, using 40,000 to 60,000 shells. The main effort is to push our forces back from Donetsk,” he wrote in a post on Tuesday evening.
Several Ukrainian cities were attacked on Wednesday, reports say The New York Times referring to Ukrainian local leaders.
In the south, Ukrainian positions in Mykolaiv were attacked by air. The port is said to have been damaged, and a civilian university is also said to have been hit.
Several homes are also said to have been destroyed in Odessa, where three people were injured.
Guterres in place
The information about the bombed cities comes just hours before UN Secretary General António Guterres arrived in Ukraine.
Later today he will meet President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Lviv in western Ukraine. And on Friday, Guterres will visit the port city of Odessa, says UN spokesperson Farhan Haq.
Guterres visited Ukraine in April. At that time he was, among other things, in Butja outside the capital Kyiv. Extensive Russian abuses have been reported from Butja. The UN Secretary General was also in Kyiv during his visit in April. While he was there, the city was subjected to Russian attacks.