Russian missiles on Sunday hit industrial facilities in a strategic city in southern Ukraine as a funeral was held for a four-year-old girl killed in a previous deadly attack elsewhere in the country.
Liza Dmitrieva, who had Down syndrome, was on her way to see a speech therapist with her mother when a Russian missile struck the city of Vinnytsia in central Ukraine on Thursday.
At least 24 people were killed, including Liza and two children aged seven and eight. More than 200 more people were injured, including Liza’s mother, who remains in a intensive care unit in serious condition.
“I didn’t know Liza, but no one can go through it calmly,” said priest Vitalii Holoskevych, bursting into tears as Liza’s body lay in a coffin with flowers and teddy bears in the 18th-century Transfiguration Cathedral. in Vinnytsia.
“We know evil can’t win,” he said, his voice trembling as dozens of relatives and neighbors attended the funeral.
Men carry a coffin during Liza Dmitrieva’s funeral in Vinnytsia [Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo]
On Sunday, more Russian missiles hit industrial facilities in the strategic southern city of Mykolaiv, a key shipbuilding center on the Southern Bug River estuary. There was no immediate information about the victims.
Mykolaiv has faced regular Russian missile attacks in recent weeks as the Russians have tried to soften Ukrainian defenses.
The Russian army has declared the goal of cutting off the entire Black Sea coast of Ukraine to the Romanian border. If successful, this effort would be an overwhelming blow to Ukraine’s economy and trade and allow Moscow to secure a land bridge with Moldova’s Transnistrian separatist region, which hosts a Russian military base.
Earlier in the campaign, Ukrainian forces defended Russian attempts to capture Mykolaiv, located near the Black Sea coast between the Russian-occupied Crimea and the main Ukrainian port of Odessa.
Since then, Russian troops have stopped their attempts to advance on the city, but have continued to hit both Mykolaiv and Odessa with regular missile attacks.
The Russians have also tried to strengthen their positions in the Kherson region, near Crimea and part of the northern Zaporizhia region, which they seized in the early stages of the conflict, for fear of a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
During a visit to the front line on Saturday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu issued an order “to further intensify the actions of the units in all operational areas.”
The British Defense Ministry said on Sunday that Russia is also strengthening defenses in the areas it occupies in southern Ukraine following pressure from Ukrainian forces and promises by Ukrainian leaders to expel Russia.
The ministry said Russia is moving labor and equipment between Kherson, Mariupol and Zaporizhia. He said the Russians are also stepping up their security measures around Melitopol.
He added: “Given the pressures on Russian labor, reinforcements from the south as the fighting for the Donbass continues indicates the gravity with which Russian commanders see the threat.”
Ukraine says its forces still maintain control of two small villages in the Luhansk region, one of the two provinces that make up the Donbas, and that they are facing Russian attempts to advance further into the second, the region of Luhansk. Donetsk.
The Ukrainian army staff said on Sunday that Ukrainian troops thwarted Russian attempts to advance on Sloviansk, Ukraine’s key stronghold in Donetsk.
The Russian military said it had struck Ukrainian troops and artillery positions in Donbas in the latest series of attacks, including a U.S.-supplied high-mobility artillery rocket system (HIMARS) deployed near the United States. eastern city of Pokrovsk. Russian claims could not be independently verified.
Pokrovsk regional police chief Ruslan Osypenko said a residential area had been bombed by Russia with several rocket launchers and that there were dead and wounded. Authorities released a video of damaged homes and residents describing the attack.
Vadym Skibitskyi, a Ukrainian military intelligence official, said on Saturday that HIMARS could be used on targets in Crimea, which was annexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014 when it also supported armed separatists in the is from Ukraine.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday that the refusal of Ukraine and Western powers to recognize Moscow’s control of Crimea poses a “systemic threat” to Russia.
In the event of an attack on Crimea, Medvedev was quoted by the TASS news agency as saying, “Judgment Day will come very quickly and hard. It will be very difficult to hide.”