Russia hits hundreds of targets across Ukraine

Russia said on Monday it had hit hundreds of military targets in Ukraine overnight destroying command posts with airlaunched missiles while authorities in the western city of Lviv which has escaped heavy bombardment said a missile attack killed sixThe Russian defence ministry said in a statement it had destroyed 16 Ukrainian military facilities in the Kharkiv Zaporizhzhia Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions and in the port of Mykolayiv in the south and east of the country It added that the Russian air force had launched strikes against 108 areas where Ukrainian forces were concentrated and Russian artillery struck 315 Ukrainian military targets overnightA man takes a selfie in front of a destroyed Russian tank in the village of Andriivka on SundayDriven back by Ukrainian resistance in the north the Russian military has refocused its ground offensive in the two eastern provinces known as the Donbas while launching longdistance strikes at other targets including the capital Kyiv It is now trying to take full control of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol which has been besieged for weeks and which would be a huge strategic prize linking territory held by proRussian separatists in the east with the Crimea region Moscow annexed in 2014 Ukrainian authorities said missiles struck military facilities and a car tire service point in Lviv which is just 60 km 40 miles from the Polish border Lviv mayor Andriy Sadoviy said seven people were killed and 11 were wounded The blast shattered windows of a hotel housing Ukrainians evacuated from elsewhere in the country he added Russia denies targeting civilians and rejects what Ukraine says is evidence of atrocities saying Ukraine has staged them to undermine peace talksUkrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said troops in the pulverised port of Mariupol were still fighting on Sunday despite a Russian demand to surrender ldquoThe city still has not fallenrdquo he told ABCrsquos This Week programme adding that Ukrainian soldiers continued to control some parts of the southeastern cityUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian troops in southern Ukraine have been carrying out torture and kidnappings and he called on the world Sunday to respondldquoTorture chambers are built thererdquo Zelensky said in an evening address to the nation ldquoThey abduct representatives of local governments and anyone deemed visible to local communitiesrdquo Zelensky said humanitarian aid has been stolen creating famine315No of military sites Russia claims to have hit overnightCaptured Britons ask to be swappedTwo British fighters captured in Ukraine by Russian forces appeared on Russian state TV on Monday and asked to be exchanged for a proRussian politician who is being held by the Ukrainian authorities It was unclear how freely the two men Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin were able to talkPutin ally suggests prisoner swapProRussian Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk appealed in a video released by Ukrainersquos security service on Monday to be handed over to Moscow in a prisoner swap for Ukrainian forces and civilians trapped in MariupolMedvedchuk made the appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a video published by the SBU security service on Facebook This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever