Authorities in Ukraine attempted to extricate people from the wreckage of a residential structure in the country’s east, which they billed as one of the numerous civilian targets hit by Russian missiles or long-range artillery in recent days. As of Monday night, nine individuals had been rescued from the wreckage.
According to Ukraine’s emergency services on Saturday, the number of fatalities from the Russian missile attack on the five-story building in Chasiv Yar, in the Donetsk region, had risen to 30.
Even though some observers claim that Russia appears to have stopped the advance of its ground forces, artillery battles and airstrikes have remained intense, particularly close to the front lines in eastern Ukraine.
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, there were 34 Russian airstrikes on Sunday alone.
“It was a missile strike. And everyone who gives orders for such strikes, everyone who carries them out targeting our ordinary cities, residential areas, kills absolutely deliberately,” he said late Sunday night.
Despite Russia’s repeated claims that its forces do not target civilians, reporters spotted victims being rescued from the rubble.
On Monday, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that it had attacked Ukrainian forces’ Chasiv Yar infrastructure.
The Institute for the Study of War reports that after seizing the entirety of the eastern Luhansk region, Moscow has put its forces on an “operational pause” as it turns its attention to capturing the Donetsk region, which, together with Luhansk, makes up the industrial Donbas region.
Both sides have suffered significant casualties as the fight has evolved into an attrition-based battle characterized by constant heavy artillery and missile barrages.
Oleg Kotenko, head of the International Commission on Missing Persons, said at least 7,000 Ukrainian military personnel are suspected missing.
On Monday morning, Russian missile attacks persisted as Ukrainian authorities reported damage to civilian locations in both the north and south of the nation. Cluster munitions, outlawed in many countries due to the widespread and indiscriminate destruction they inflict, were used by Russian forces, Ukrainian officials alleged.
On Monday, the Nord Stream pipeline carrying Russian gas to western Europe was shut down for annual maintenance. Germany prepared to approve the restart of 10 coal-fired power plants due to worries that Russia might not bring the pipeline back online.
Moscow has attributed reductions in the gas flow to Western sanctions, which the Kremlin claims are depriving the pipeline of essential components, including a turbine that had been in Canada for maintenance.
Canada’s recent decision to send the turbine back to Germany for use in Nord Stream drew criticism from Ukrainian officials. Berlin wants to give the equipment back to Russia, arguing that doing so would demonstrate how Moscow has been using the turbine to obstruct gas supplies to Europe for political reasons.
Russian and its regional partners reportedly increased their efforts to transport grain from Ukraine’s occupied east, according to Ukrainian military intelligence. According to Ukraine’s Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense, authorities have established a corporation and nationalized exporting facilities in the port of Berdyansk.
According to a statement from the Turkish government, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, spoke on Monday about grain exports. Erdogan said it was time for the United Nations to move forward with its plans to establish secure corridors for grain exports through the Black Sea.