Kyiv says he hit a Russian arms depot in southern Ukraine

Kyiv said on Tuesday it had launched a barrage of rockets and missiles at Russian military targets in southern Ukraine and destroyed a weapons depot, in attacks Moscow-backed authorities said damaged homes.

The night bombardment of the Kherson region – which Russian troops captured shortly after their invasion in late February – comes as Kiev’s army tries to retake territory in the country’s south.

Ukrainian military officials said the strikes destroyed artillery, armored vehicles “and a storage facility with ammunition in Nova Kakhovka.”

However, Russian-backed authorities in the city said Ukrainian strikes had damaged civilian infrastructure and killed at least seven people, a number that could not be independently verified.

“There are no military targets here… Warehouses were hit, as were shops, a pharmacy, gas stations and even a church,” Moscow-backed city government head Vladimir Leontiev said on social media.

Pictures released by Moscow-backed authorities showed several buildings reduced to ashes.

The Ukrainian army has been waging a counter-offensive on the southern front of Kherson for several weeks, while Russian troops are concentrating on the east of the country.

Deputy head of the pro-Russian authorities in Kherson, Ekaterina Gubareva, accused Ukraine of using long-range precision artillery systems supplied by the United States in the attacks in Nova Kakhovka.

Ukraine has advocated sophisticated artillery systems from Western allies to repel Russian forces, arguing that only these weapons could turn the tide of the fighting.

Now military analysts are crediting the newly arrived systems – including Caesars from France and HIMARS from the United States – with attacks deeper into Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine, including at ammunition depots.

During a visit to Kyiv on Monday, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the Netherlands were also sending more advanced artillery to the front.

But the United States warned that Moscow is also getting a weapons boost, as Iran plans to supply hundreds of drones with combat weapons capabilities to Russia for use in Ukraine, a senior US official said Monday.

Russian forces launched “massive” attacks on the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv early Tuesday, with missiles hitting two medical facilities and residential buildings, the city’s mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said.

Regional head Vitaliy Kim said 12 people were injured in these attacks.

However, the epicenter of fighting in Ukraine in recent weeks has been the country’s industrial east, known as Donbass, where Moscow forces have been slowly advancing despite fierce resistance and recent Russian attacks have left dozens dead.

Moscow has focused its efforts on the region since failing to capture Kyiv after its February 24 invasion.

Two days after a Russian bombardment reduced an apartment building in the eastern city of Chasiv Yar to rubble, rescue workers were still busy clearing the rubble and removing bodies from the rubble on Tuesday.

The head of Donetsk region, which has been partially controlled by Moscow-backed separatists since 2014, said 34 people have been killed by Sunday’s attack so far.

Nine people were recovered alive, said Pavlo Kyrylenko.

Since the beginning of the conflict, the Kremlin has been working to consolidate its hold, both militarily and bureaucratically, in areas it controls, such as Kherson.

After Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday issued a decree speeding up Russian passports for all Ukrainians, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was due to open a representative office for separatist agencies in Moscow on Tuesday.