At least 6 people were killed in a Russian missile attack on southern Ukraine and shelling in the east

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) – Russian forces fired cruise missiles into the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa overnight and bombed homes in the eastern Donetsk region early Wednesday, killing at least six people and wounding more than a dozen, regional officials said. .

A Ukrainian military spokesman said that Russian forces have intensified air strikes in their more than 15-month-old war against Ukraine.just as the state’s forces reported limited gains in an early counterattack.

In the east, Donetsk region governor Pavlo Kirilenko wrote on Telegram that at least three people died after shelling destroyed seven homes and damaged dozens of others in the cities of Kramatorsk and Konstantinovka.

Facebook’s regional administration said three employees of a food warehouse were killed and seven others wounded in a raid that destroyed homes, a warehouse, shops and cafes in the city center in Odessa. Six others – guards and residents of a nearby house – were wounded.

She added that researchers were searching for possible survivors in the rubble.

The administration said the attack on the port city, which was launched from the Black Sea, involved four Caliber cruise missiles, three of which were intercepted by the air defenses.

Andrey Kovalov, a spokesman for the Ukrainian General Staff, said that Russian forces have increased missile and air strikes on Ukraine.

He said in a briefing that the strikes on the Kharkiv, Donetsk and Kirovohrad regions, in addition to the Odessa region, included Kh-22 cruise missiles, Kalibr cruise missiles and Iranian-made drones. Nine were intercepted.

Kovalov said Ukrainian forces had made progress on several fronts on the nearly 1,000-kilometre (600-mile) frontline, and fighting was going on in or near at least two settlements in the eastern Donetsk region. Russia occupied and controls almost a fifth of the Ukrainian territory.

Britain’s Ministry of Defense, which regularly issues updates on the conflict, wrote on Twitter that southern Ukraine “was more often allowed in by Russian air operations” than other parts of the front.

Separately, the mayor of the central city of Kryvyi Rih, hometown of President Volodymyr Zelensky, said the death toll from a Russian raid the day before. that hit an apartment building rose to 12.

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