Residential buildings, school shelled in Russian assault in eastern Ukraine

Russia shelled residential buildings and a school in Moscow’s latest strikes in its push to claim more land in eastern Ukraine.

One person died and another was injured in the shelling in the city of Nikopol on Sunday morning, according to the Ukrainian military. The attack damaged four residential buildings, a vocational school and a water treatment facility. Another missile strike in the country’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, left one person injured overnight.

The attacks come as Russia has attempted to seize more land in the eastern part of Ukraine, with Ukrainian and western officials warning that the Kremlin is planning to launch a new offensive as the war reaches its one-year anniversary.

Ukrainian military officials, however, argue that the offensive has already started, and that it is repelling the Russian aggression effectively.

“They are having big problems with a big offensive,” Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, told Ukrainian television on Saturday night.

“They have begun their offensive, they’re just not saying they have, and our troops are repelling it very powerfully. The offensive that they planned is already gradually underway. But [it is] not the offensive they were counting on,” Danilov said.

The continuing assaults in eastern Ukraine also come as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky finished a crucial trip to European allies, touring key countries as he attempted to lock down even more military support.

After a trip that included stops in the U.K. and France, Ukrainian officials signaled that the mission to allied countries was successful in securing long-range missile systems and fighter jets.

Zelensky last week also pushed the European Union to admit his country in a rare speech in front of the EU Parliament in Brussels.

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