Ukraine Says At Least 7 Dead As Russia Steps Up Donetsk Offensive – National | Globalnews.ca

Russian shelling has killed at least seven people in Ukraine over the past 24 hours and wounded 25 more, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday.

The country’s presidential office said Russian forces attacked towns and villages in southeastern Ukraine, with most of the civilian casualties occurring in Donetsk province, where Russia has stepped up its offensive in recent days.

Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said in a Telegram post that two people were killed in the city of Avdiivka, which is in the center of the province, with the Donetsk cities of Sloviansk, Krasnohorivka and Kurakhove each reporting one civilian dead.

“Every crime will be punished,” he wrote.

Kyrylenko urged the more than 350,000 remaining residents of the province to flee Tuesday night, saying evacuating Donetsk was necessary to save lives and allow the Ukrainian army to better defend itself against the Russian advance.

Donetsk is part of Donbas, a largely Russian-speaking industrial area where Ukraine’s most experienced soldiers are concentrated. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday declared the total seizure of the region’s other province, Lugansk, after Ukrainian troops withdrew from his country’s last city.

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Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai denied on Wednesday that the Russians had fully captured the province. Heavy fighting continued in villages around Lysychansk, the town from which Ukrainian soldiers withdrew and which Russian troops took on Sunday, he said.

“The Russians have paid a heavy price, but the Luhansk region is not completely captured by the Russian army,” Haidai said. “Some settlements have already been invaded by each side multiple times.”

He said up to 15,000 residents remain in Lysychansk and some 8,000 in the nearby city of Sievierodonetsk, which Russian and separatist fighters seized last month.

Pro-Russian separatists fought Ukrainian forces and controlled much of Donbas for eight years. Before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, Putin recognized the independence of the region’s two self-proclaimed breakaway republics.

Since Russian forces made no headway in capturing Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, Moscow has concentrated its offensive on seizing the remaining areas of the Donbas held by Ukraine.

North of Donetsk, Russian forces also targeted Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, with missile strikes overnight, Kharkiv’s regional governor said Wednesday on Telegram.

Three districts of the city were attacked, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said. Three people, including a small child, were injured, according to the governor. A university building and an administration building were destroyed.

In other developments:

• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the 27-nation European Union needs to make contingency plans to prepare for a complete cut off of Russian gas in the wake of the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine. The EU has already imposed sanctions on Russia, including on some energy supplies, and is trying to find other sources. But von der Leyen said the bloc had to be prepared for disturbances from Moscow.