Ukraine claims it's targeting Russian troops with long-range strikes
Ukraine's campaign to attack Russian supply lines and ammunition storage sites far behind the frontlines is continuing, with Ukrainian officials reporting another long-range strike against Russian military positions in the southern region of Kherson.
Serhiy Khlan, a member of Kherson's regional council, said there had been "a precise hit" on Sunday at the military unit of the occupiers on Pestelia Street in Kherson city.
There are unconfirmed reports 12 people were killed and US-supplied weapons systems were used in the attack.
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Russia has denied reports of a long-range strike against one of it military units in the occupied city of Kherson in Ukraine. AP
The unit was hit twice on Sunday morning, Khlan claimed.
"Eyewitnesses report the cries of Russians under the rubble. The occupiers shoot in the air when someone tries to get closer," Khlan said.
He told Ukrainian television: "Thanks to modern Western weapons, Russian air defences cannot intercept artillery."
Sunday's attack follows a series of explosions near the airport in Kherson on Saturday, and at what appears to have been an ammunition storage site in the Donetsk region.
But Russia's Tass news agency offered a different account, saying that the target was a mineral fertiliser storage facility that exploded and that a market, hospital and houses were damaged.
Some of the ingredients in fertiliser can be used as ammunition.
Tass said there casualties, without providing an estimate, and claimed the weapon used in the strike was fired from a US-supplied multiple-launch High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS.
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Russian state media claims Ukrainian forces fired a US-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), like this one from a file photo, was involved in the attack on Kherson. Tony Overman/The Olympian via AP
Ukrainian officials didn't comment on the type of weapon used.
Ukrainian military intelligence claimed on Monday to have intercepted a call between Russian soldiers, in which one said that Ukrainian forces had "hit the most important command. They hit f------ hard."
The soldier said 12 people had been killed in the strike.
Meanwhile, Russian shelling of Ukraine's second-largest city on Monday killed at least six people and injured 31, prosecutors and local officials said.
Russian troops launched three missile strikes on Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, in an attack one official described as "absolute terrorism".
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A car destroyed by a Russian attack in a residential neighbourhood in downtown Kharkiv, Ukraine. AP
Russia's Defence Ministry said the attacks struck at the points of deployment for Ukraine's "nationalist battalions" Kharkiv regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram that the shelling came from multiple rocket launchers, and those wounded and hospitalised included children aged 4 and 16.
"Only civilian structures — a shopping centre and houses of peaceful Kharkiv residents — came under the fire of the Russians. Several shells hit the yards of private houses. Garages and cars were also destroyed. Several fires broke out," Syniehubov wrote.
Earlier, he said one missile destroyed a school, another hit a residential building, while the third landed near warehouse facilities.
"All (three were launched) exclusively on civilian objects. This is absolute terrorism!" Syniehubov said.
- Reported with CNN, Associated Press
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