Ukraine

Russia claims new gains in east Ukraine push, launches deadly strikes

Author: Editors Desk Source: France 24

September 9, 2024 at 08:02

Ukrainian artillerymen fire an M101A1 howitzer towards Russian troops near Pokrovsk, in Ukraine's Donetsk region, on September 5, 2024. © Serhii Nuzhnenko, Reuters

Russia claimed on Sunday that its forces had taken full control of a town in eastern Ukraine as they advance on the strategically important city of Pokrovsk. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky again urged Kyiv's partners to give him more scope to use Western-supplied weapons against targets inside Russia.

Russia on Sunday said its forces had advanced in eastern Ukraine as Kyiv reported deadly air attacks and urged the West to allow it to carry out more retaliatory strikes inside Russia's borders.

Moscow has upped its aerial attacks in recent weeks at the same time it tries to fight off a major Ukrainian cross-border offensive into its Western Kursk region that has reshaped the course of the two-and-a-half-year war.

Two people were killed on Sunday in a Russian air strike on the Ukrainian city of Sumy, the capital of the region from where Ukraine poured troops and tanks across the border into Russia in its shock counter-attack.

"As a result of the air strike, two people died. Four more people were injured, including two children," Sumy military authorities in the region said in a statement.