DONETSK REGION, Ukraine — Drone footage released by the Ukrainian military on Sunday appears to point out bodies in a civilian area within the embattled city of Toretsk in eastern Ukraine, which has come under heavy Russian shelling in recent days.
The attacks within the war-torn Donetsk region have prompted Ukrainian emergency services to step up evacuation efforts. Local officials said powerful Russian glide bombs had also been utilized in the town, the most recent flashpoint on the eastern front, as Russian attacks proceed to force overwhelmed Ukrainian front-line units onto the defensive.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Russia had dropped greater than 800 glide bombs over Ukraine last week alone.
“Ukraine needs the necessary means to destroy the carriers of these bombs, including Russian fighter jets, wherever they are. This step is essential,” he wrote in an internet post.
Glide bombs are Soviet-era heavy bombs equipped with precision guidance systems and fired from aircraft flying beyond the range of air defenses. The bombs weigh greater than a ton and blow targets right into a thousand pieces, leaving huge craters.
In Toretsk, police volunteers helped elderly residents out of their homes by carrying a girl from her bed onto a stretcher.
“It's a terrible situation because we couldn't evacuate for three days,” Oksana Zharko, 48, told the Associated Press as she left the town in a police automotive with members of the family and a cat in a plastic box.
“Yesterday there was an attack and our house was destroyed – it is very strong, there are no walls left. Everyone is stressed, emotional, in tears. It is very scary.”
In recent weeks, Russian attacks have focused in town of Khasiv Yar further north. Ukrainian commanders within the region said their resources remained stretched, largely because there had been no US military support for months.
Ukraine continues to be struggling to stabilize parts of its front line after the United States promised much-needed military aid in April.
Zelensky called on countries helping Ukraine to further ease restrictions on the usage of Western weapons to attack military targets in Russia.
“Clear decisions are needed to protect our population,” he said. “Long-range strikes and modern air defenses are the basis for stopping everyday Russian terror. I thank all our partners who understand this.”
Hours after Zelensky's speech, Ukrainian officials said Russian glide bombs had landed near a post office depot in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city in northeastern Ukraine, killing one worker and injuring nine people, including an eight-month-old baby.
According to an announcement from the private postal and courier service Nova Poshta, which operates the warehouse, a minimum of seven delivery trucks caught fire through the strike, a minimum of three others and the warehouse itself were damaged, and one driver died.
Up to nine people were trapped under the burning rubble and rescue teams were combing the accident site on Sunday evening, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram.
Less than a day earlier, Russian missiles had hit a city in southern Ukraine, killing seven civilians, including children, and injuring dozens, local authorities reported.
Ukrainian officials released photos of bodies sprawled under picnic blankets in a Vilnius park and of deep craters within the blackened earth next to the charred, twisted stays of a constructing.
At least 38 people were injured within the attack on Saturday evening, authorities said, and declared Sunday a day of mourning. Vilniansk is positioned within the Zaporizhia region, lower than 30 kilometers from the capital and north of the front line, as Russian troops proceed to occupy parts of the province.
Russian-appointed officials in partially occupied Donetsk, which has been illegally annexed by Moscow, said Ukrainian artillery fire on Sunday injured a four-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl. Russia's Emergencies Ministry also said 4 of its employees were fired on Sunday as they tried to place out a hearth within the Kremlin-occupied capital Donetsk.
Debris from a drone fell on a village within the Kursk region, blowing out windows and damaging roofs and fences, based on a Telegram post by regional governor Alexei Smirnov.
Associated Press author Joanna Kozlowska in London contributed to this report.
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