Ukraine accused Russia of potential war crimes Saturday, saying their shelling targeted civilians in residential areas of two cities in northeastern Ukraine.

In the first case, a Russian airstrike wounded six people, including two teens and a child in the city of Kharkiv.

In the second case, Russian shelling in Vovchansk, a town 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) from the Russian border, killed a 60-year-old woman and injured three other civilians. A 59-year-man also was injured in the village of Ukrainske, they said.

Thousands of civilians have been killed or injured since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Moscow denies targeting civilians.

Russia said its forces shot down a Ukrainian Tochka-U ballistic missile on Saturday. A similar missile launched last week on the Russian border town of Belgorod caused the collapse of an apartment building, killing at least 15 people.

Fierce battles continue along the now-longer front line of Ukraine.

In his nightly video address, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces repelled a Russian assault farther south in the eastern Donetsk region around Chasiv Yar, a city of strategic significance in Russia’s offensive.

“Our soldiers destroyed more than 20 units of the occupier’s armored vehicles,” he said.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday it had taken a village near Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region.

“Units of the northern troop group liberated the village of Starytsya in the Kharkiv region, and continued to advance deep into the enemy’s defenses,” it said.

Reuters could not immediately verify the battlefield accounts.

Larger offensive

Zelenskyy said he anticipates Russia will intensify its offensive in the northeast and made a plea to the allies to send more air defense and fighter jets to even the playing field.

In an interview with AFP, Zelenskyy said Kyiv needs more air defenses to hold the front line since Russia’s surprise offensive in the Kharkiv region last week.

“Today, we have about 25% of what we need to defend Ukraine. I’m talking about air defense,” he said. Ukraine needs “120 to 130” F-16 fighter jets or other advanced aircraft to achieve air parity with Russia, he added.

He said Ukrainian troops have managed to stop enemy forces that have moved 5 to 10 kilometers (3.1 to 6.2 miles) into Ukrainian territory along the northeastern border, but he cautioned that those troops could be the “first wave” in a wider Russian offensive.

“I won’t say it’s a great success (for Russia), but we have to be sober and understand that they are going deeper into our territory,” he said, speaking from Kyiv on Friday.

Zelenskyy said the situation in the Kharkiv region has been controlled but not stabilized.

Civilians flee

Nearly 10,000 people have left their homes in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region since the Russian ground attack began on May 10, regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said Saturday.

About 100 people are left in the city of Vovchansk, where “heavy fighting” is taking place, he added. Ukrainian authorities have evacuated about 8,000 civilians from Vovchansk, which sits about 5 kilometers from the Russian border.

Russian forces took control of 278 square kilometers (107 square miles) of Ukraine between May 9 and 15, their biggest territorial gain since the end of 2022, according to AFP using data from the Institute for the Study of War.

During a visit to China, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region was a response to Ukraine shelling border regions.

Putin said that he aims at building a buffer zone against Ukrainian attacks, but that Moscow has no plans on capturing Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.

“I have said publicly that if it continues, we will be forced to create a security zone, a sanitary zone,” he said. “That’s what we are doing.” Russian troops were “advancing daily according to plan,” he said.

To increase the number of Ukrainian troops, Zelenskyy signed two laws on Friday allowing prisoners to join the army while imposing steep fines for draft dodgers. The controversial mobilization law took effect Saturday.

Ukraine recently lowered the draft age for soldiers from 27 to 25 and stiffened punishments for those who avoid being called up.

Ukrainian men are also obligated, under the new law, to update their personal data at military conscription centers across the country — a measure aimed at streamlining army recruitment.

Consular services that provide Ukrainians abroad with passport services reopened Friday. The services were suspended on April 23, to pressure Ukrainian men ages 18 to 60 living abroad to register for the army to qualify for passports and other services.

“Staying abroad does not relieve a citizen of his or her duties to the Homeland,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on the social platform X. “Our country is at war.”

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.

Source: voanews.com