Russian attacks on eastern Ukrainian cities kill four, officials say

June 16 (Reuters) – Russian attacks on cities in Ukraine’s east and southeast killed four people and set ablaze a residence and a shopping centre, officials and prosecutors said late on Tuesday.

Prosecutors in the Donetsk region, the focal point of Ukraine’s front line, said three people died in two bomb attacks in the city of Sloviansk. Five people were injured.

Sloviansk is part of the country’s “fortress belt,” heavily defended by the military and seen as key to containing a slow-moving Russian offensive in Donetsk.

In the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, national police said a wave of dozens of drones killed one person in his car and injured seven others.

Pictures posted online showed flames inside a building and on a rooftop and at least one facade reduced to rubble.

Regional Governor Ivan Fedorov said there had been five strikes on the city. He said fire broke out in a residence and a shopping centre, and an educational institution sustained damage.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. Russia and Ukraine deny deliberately targeting civilians in the war that started with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Oleksandr Kozhukhar; Editing by Mark Porter and Jamie Freed)