Ukraine launched long-range missile strikes on Russian forces in southern Ukraine and destroyed an ammunition stockpile, the military said, as Russia continued to pound the east of the country.
The attack on Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region killed 52 people, the Ukrainian army said on Tuesday.
The city’s Russian-installed authorities said at least seven people had been killed and about 70 injured, Russia’s TASS news agency reported.
The attack came after Washington supplied Ukraine with advanced mobile artillery systems from HIMARS that Kiev says its forces are using with increasing efficiency.
Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports.
“Based on the results of our missile and artillery units, the enemy lost 52 (people), an Msta-B howitzer, a mortar and seven armored and other vehicles, as well as an ammunition depot in Nova Kakhovka,” the southern military command said. from Ukraine. said in a statement.
Russian officials claimed the strike killed civilians.
The area is of strategic importance for its access to the Black Sea, once a thriving agricultural industry and location just north of Russia-annexed Crimea.
Unverified videos on social media showed an immense fireball erupting in the night sky.
Images released by Russian state media showed a wasteland covered with rubble and the remains of buildings.
An official of the Russian-imposed local government said Ukraine had used HIMARS missiles and destroyed warehouses containing saltpeter, a chemical compound that can be used to make fertilizer or gunpowder.
“Many people are still under the rubble.
“The injured are being taken to hospital, but many people are trapped in their apartments and houses,” Vladimir Leontyev, head of the Russian-installed military-civilian administration of the Kakhovka district, told TASS.
He said warehouses, shops, a pharmacy, gas stations and a church were affected.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the type of weapon used.
Russia continued to pound eastern Ukraine in an effort to take control of the Donetsk province and the entire industrial region of Donbask.
Moscow captured the Luhansk province, which makes up the rest of the Donbas, earlier this month.
Russia says it wants to wrest the Donbas from Ukraine on behalf of Moscow-backed separatists in two self-declared people’s republics whose independence it recognized on the eve of war.
Ukraine is bracing for what it expects to be a large-scale new Russian offensive in the east.
Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said there was a significant build-up of Russian troops, particularly in the Bakhmut and Siversky areas, and around Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.
The entire frontline in the region was under constant shelling as Russian troops tried to break through but were repelled, he said.
Further east in Donbas, Ukrainian forces launched a “massive airstrike” on an air defense unit in Luhansk, pro-Russian militia officer Andrey Marochko said in his Telegram channel, according to TASS news agency.
The Russian campaign in Ukraine, which it calls a “special military operation”, is nearly five months old and is Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II.
Russia says it sent troops to Ukraine on Feb. 24 to demilitarize the country and rid the country of nationalists who threaten Russian-speakers there. Ukraine and Western countries say Russia’s claims are an unfounded pretext to attack.
According to the UN, the conflict has devastated Ukrainian cities and 5.2 million people have fled the country.
The UN human rights agency said on Tuesday that 5,024 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since the invasion began, adding that the real toll was likely much higher.
The conflict has blocked Ukrainian grain exports, exacerbating a global food crisis.
More than 20 million tons of grain are trapped in silos in the Black Sea’s main port, Odessa.
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said military delegations from Ukraine, Russia and Turkey will meet UN officials in Istanbul on Wednesday to discuss a possible deal to resume safe exports of Ukrainian grain.
As Russia blocks major Black Sea ports in Ukraine, Ukraine’s Deputy Infrastructure Minister Yuriy Vaskov said grain shipments through the Danube had increased with the reopening of the Bystre Canal, which provides access to small inland ports.
Ukraine expects monthly grain exports to increase by 500,000 tons, Vaskov said. Ukraine is also negotiating with Romania and the European Commission to increase supplies through the Sulina Canal, he said.