In the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, Vitaliy Kim, the local mayor, said a Russian rocket attack had killed at least three people when it struck a residential building. Moscow has acknowledged the blow to the city, but said its forces had hit what it called a “foreign mercenary” training base in the area. The video released by Ukrainian officials shows smoke rising from a four-story building with its upper floor severely damaged. In Kryvyi Rih, in central Ukraine, the local governor said Russia had also increased its bombardment there in recent days. “Many villages have been wiped off the face of the earth,” said Governor Oleksandr Vilkul. A senior military official said Russia had fired about 130 missiles at Ukraine in the past four days – including attacks on a shopping center in central Ukraine’s Kremenchuk, which killed 20 civilians – as the war showed no signs of retreating. “The enemy is displaying remarkable audacity by inflicting missile strikes on the territory of our state,” Valery Zaluzny, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, said on Wednesday. Subscribe to the First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7 p.m. BST Recent Russian attacks on civilian areas have led to the condemnation of Western leaders, with the Pope calling the attack on the Kremenchuk mall the latest in a series of “barbaric attacks”. Russia has often denied targeting civilian areas, but according to the UN, at least 4,700 civilians have been killed since the start of the war, a number many Ukrainian officials believe is many. Addressing the UN Security Council from a distance on Tuesday, Zelensky urged the council to expel Russia from the UN, calling it a “terrorist state”. In its daily briefing, the British Defense Ministry said it expects Russia to continue to strike across the country in a bid to thwart Ukraine’s efforts to replenish its front-line forces. “Russia’s lack of state-of-the-art precision weapons and the professional weaknesses of its target designers are likely to lead to further civilian casualties,” the statement added. Moscow has stepped up its attacks as its forces make slow but steady progress in the industrialized east of the country, where fighting is raging for the hilltop town of Lysychansk, the last Ukrainian stronghold in the Luhansk region. Serhiy Haidai, governor of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, said the city was under heavy bombardment on Wednesday as Russian troops tried to encircle it. “The Russians have a quantitative advantage in both personnel and equipment,” he said, adding that battles were being fought “everywhere” in the battle for the key city. If Lysychansk falls, the entire Luhansk region, which along with Donetsk forms the eastern Donbas region, will come under Russian control, marking a major breakthrough for Vladimir Putin’s troops in their efforts to take control of Donbas. In total, Russian forces occupy about 20% of Ukraine’s territory. On Wednesday, the military-political administration in the Kherson region imposed by Moscow said it had begun preparations for a referendum on joining Russia, with the vote scheduled for “next six months,” according to Kirill Stremousov, its deputy leader. Of the Russian Federation. -supported administration. While Russian President Vladimir Putin initially said that the goal of what Moscow refers to as a “special military operation” was not the annexation of Ukrainian territory, he recently changed his rhetoric. In a speech earlier this month, Putin said he would “respect any choice” made by the Russian-occupied territories, adding that the entire former Soviet Union was “historic Russia.” Meanwhile, Indonesian President Joko Widodo arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday morning to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on a visit aimed at alleviating the global food crisis. President Widodo, better known as Jokowi, and his wife traveled to Kyiv by train from Przemyśl, Poland, after attending the G7 summit in Germany earlier this week. Prior to the conflict, Indonesia was one of the largest importers of Ukrainian wheat. Widodo said he was committed to raising the issue of rising food and energy prices in Zelenskiy, as millions of tonnes of grain remain stranded in Ukraine due to the blockade of Black Sea ports, including the port in occupied Mariupol. Following his meeting with Zelensky, Widodo will travel to Moscow, where he has pledged to urge Putin to agree to a ceasefire.
