Russian missiles hit industrial facilities in a strategic city in southern Ukraine on Sunday as a funeral was held for a four-year-old girl killed in an earlier strike elsewhere in the country.
Liza Dmytrieva, who had Down’s syndrome, was en route to see a speech therapist with her mother when a Russian missile struck the city of Vinnytsia in central Ukraine on Thursday.
At least 24 people were killed, including Liza and two boys aged seven and eight. More than 200 others were wounded, including Liza’s mother, who remains in an intensive care unit in a serious condition.
“I didn’t know Liza, but no person can go through this with calm,” priest Vitalii Holoskevych said as Liza’s body lay in a coffin with flowers and teddy bears.
“We know that evil cannot win,” he added.
More Russian missiles struck industrial facilities in the strategic southern city of Mykolaiv, a key shipbuilding centre in the estuary of the Southern Bug river, on Sunday. There was no immediate information about casualties.
Mykolaiv has faced regular missile attacks in recent weeks as the Russians have sought to soften Ukrainian defences.
The Russian military has declared a goal to cut off Ukraine’s entire Black Sea coast all the way to the Romanian border. If successful, such an effort would deal a crushing blow to the Ukrainian economy and trade and allow Moscow to secure a land bridge to Moldova’s separatist region of Transnistria, which hosts a Russian military base.
Early in the campaign, Ukrainian forces fended off Russian attempts to capture Mykolaiv, which lies near the Black Sea Coast between Russia-occupied Crimea and the main Ukrainian port of Odesa.
Since then, Russian troops have halted their attempts to advance in the city but continued to pummel it with regular missile strikes.
Russian defence ministry spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov said on Sunday that Russian missiles destroyed a depot for anti-ship Harpoon missiles delivered to Ukraine by Nato allies, a claim that could not be independently confirmed.
The Russians also sought to reinforce their positions in the Kherson region near Crimea and part of the northern Zaporizhzhia region that they seized in the opening stage of the conflict, fearing a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
The UK Ministry of Defence said on Sunday that Russia was moving manpower and equipment between Kherson, Mariupol and Zaporizhzhia. It said the Russians were also increasing their security measures around Melitopol.
It added: “Given the pressures on Russian manpower, the reinforcement of the south whilst the fight for the Donbas continues indicates the seriousness with which Russian commanders view the threat.”
For now, the Russian military has focused its efforts on trying to take control of Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland of Donbas, where the most capable and well-equipped Ukrainian forces are located.
Ukraine says its forces still retain control of two small villages in the Luhansk region, one of the two provinces that make up the Donbas, and are successfully fending off Russian attempts to advance deeper into the second one, the Donetsk region.
The Ukrainian military’s General Staff said on Sunday that Ukrainian troops thwarted Russian attempts to advance toward Sloviansk, the key Ukrainian stronghold in Donetsk, and other attacks elsewhere in the region.
During a visit to the front lines on Saturday, Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu issued an order “to further intensify the actions of units in all operational areas”.
The Russian military said it has struck Ukrainian troops and artillery positions in Donbas in the latest series of strikes, including a US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launcher. The Russian claims could not be independently verified.
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council chaired by President Vladimir Putin, responded to Ukrainian officials’ statements that Kyiv may strike the bridge linking Crimea and Russia, warning this would trigger devastating consequences for the Ukrainian leadership.
“If that happens, the consequences will be obvious: They will momentarily face the Doomsday,” Mr Medvedev said on Sunday. “It would be very hard for them to hide.”
While focusing on Donbas, the Russians hit areas across the country with missile strikes.
President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Ukrainians not to fall for Russia’s attempts to scare them with warnings of horrendous missile attacks to come, which he said are aimed at dividing Ukrainian society.
“It’s clear that no Russian missiles or artillery will be able to break our unity or lead us away from our path toward a democratic, independent Ukraine,” he said in his nightly video address to the nation. “And it is also clear that Ukrainian unity cannot be broken by lies or intimidation, fakes or conspiracy theories.”
In the Kharkiv region on Saturday, at least three civilians were killed and three others injured in a pre-dawn Russian strike on the city of Chuhuiv, which is only 75 miles (120km) from the Russian border, the police said.
Lyudmila Krekshina, who lives in the apartment building that was hit, said a husband and wife were killed, and also an elderly man who lived on the ground floor.
Another resident said she was lucky to have survived.
“I was going to run and hide in the bathroom. I didn’t make it and that’s what saved me,” said Valentina Bushuyeva. Pointing up at her destroyed apartment, she said: “There’s the bathroom – explosion. Kitchen – half a room. And I survived because I stayed put.”
