Russia launches widespread attack on Ukraine, kills 3 in Kherson

Jan. 30 (UPI) -- Ukraine faced widespread attacks from Russia on Monday, including the shelling of residential areas in the recently liberated city of Kherson, where three people died and 10 others were injured, officials said.

Kherson military leaders said Moscow attacked targeted numerous civilian buildings, including a bank, bus station, hospital, post office, residential buildings and a school on Sunday.

A Russian missile hit an apartment building in Ukraine's second-largest city of Kharkiv on Sunday, killing one person and hurting three others said Oleh Synehubov, Kharkiv's regional governor.

He added that 15 of the building's residents were evacuated from the apartment after the blast.

Ukrainian forces and the Russian mercenary group Wagner both claimed to have control of Blahodatne in the Donetsk region. Kyiv said it turned back Russian attacks there and 13 other settlements.

Denis Pushilin, head of the unrecognized Donetsk People's Republic, said Moscow-supported groups have made strides in Vuhledar.

Ukraine's General Staff of the Armed Forces said units near Vuhledar had "recently 'welcomed' the occupiers and turned their temporary stay on our land into a living hell."

Russia's Ministry of Defense also said that forces "took more advantageous positions and inflicted fire" on a Ukrainian tank brigade near Vuhledar.

Fighting continued in the contested city of Bakhmut, where Russia fights to control the key Kostiantynivka-Bakhmut highway.

Volodymyr Nazarenko, deputy commander of the "Svoboda" battalion of the 4th Rapid Reaction Brigade of Ukraine's National Guard, said Monday that the battles are intense.

"Because for five or six months, near Bakhmut has been a living hell," Nazarenko said in an interview on Ukrainian television. "The enemy is constantly attacking. And we can observe more about how the weather is changing, which, by the way, has a great impact on the combat capability, morale, and living conditions of each soldier."

Russian officials said that Ukrainian attacks across the Russian board in the Belgorod region injured two people on Monday. If accurate it would mark one of the rare attacks by Kyiv on Russian soil. Regional Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said six private homes were damaged by shell fragments in the village of Bezlyudovka.