Ukrainian shelling killed at least 28 people at a bakery in the Russian-occupied city of Lysychansk, according to Moscow-installed officials.
At least one child was among the dead Saturday, local leader Leonid Pasechnik said in a statement on Telegram. A further 10 people were rescued from under the rubble by emergency services, he added. Ukrainian officials in Kyiv did not comment regarding the incident.
Both Moscow and Kyiv have increasingly relied on longer-range attacks this winter amid largely unchanged positions on the 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) front line in the nearly 2-year-old war.
However, Ukrainian forces have come under intense Russian attack over the past 24 hours, with continuous assaults along the front line, Ukraine’s General Staff said in a statement Sunday.
Fighting has been particularly fierce in the eastern city of Avdiivka, where Moscow is attempting to encircle Kyiv’s troops, while Ukrainian forces have also been on the defensive in Kupiansk, Lyman, Bakhmut and Zaporizhzhia, officials said.
One civilian was killed and two injured in a Russian artillery strike in the frontline town of Toretsk, less than 30 kilometers from Bakhmut, said Donetsk regional governor Vadym Filashkin.