Recruits of the 3rd Assault Brigade train in the Kyiv region, Ukraine on April 9.Vadim Ghirda/The Associated Press
A Russian attack struck a grocery store and a pharmacy in a Ukrainian village close to the border with Russia on Wednesday, killing three people including a 14-year-old girl, authorities said, as the Kremlin’s forces kept up a relentless bombardment.
The strike on Lyptsi, about 10 kilometres (6 miles) from the border, also injured a 16-year-old boy and a woman, officials in the northeastern Kharkiv region said. They did not specify what kind of weapons were used.
Another strike with guided aerial bombs destroyed a hospital in Vovchansk, a town close to the border in the Kharkiv region, and injured a man, authorities said.
With the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line barely budging in recent months, Moscow’s army has kept parts of eastern and southern Ukraine under bombardment as the war stretches into its third year. The power grid has been a common target.with comments by NATO chief and Ukrainian president. Adds contributor. Trims. Updates summary.
That has prompted Ukraine’s leaders to plea for more air defence systems and ammunition from Western partners. But most of Ukraine’s air interceptors, as well as artillery shells, are provided by the United States, where further funding for Kyiv has been held up in Congress.
The lack of artillery shells and air defences is leaving Ukraine at the mercy of Russian attacks, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday.
“Ukraine simply cannot wait,” Stoltenberg said in Brussels. “It needs air defences, ammunition and aid now” from members of the military alliance.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kharkiv city is being devastated by Russian guided bombs that wreak wide destruction. Almost one fourth of the city has burned, he said.
Kharkiv is near the border, “and this allows Putin to terrorize the city,” Zelensky told a conference in Greece via videolink.
Ukrainian air defence forces destroyed 14 out of 17 Shahed attack drones launched by Russia overnight Wednesday, a statement said.
Attacks also destroyed energy infrastructure in Mykolaiv and Odesa, according to the governors of the southern regions. Odesa regional Gov. Oleh Kiper said two people were injured.
Meanwhile, rescue workers recovered the bodies of two more people, including a 13-year-old boy, from the rubble of a building partially destroyed during a Russian aerial bomb attack in Kostiantynivka in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday. Three died in all, Ukraine’s emergency services said.