Ukraine war strikes kill five as WHO condemns Dnipro attack

Russian strikes killed two people in Ukraine and a Ukrainian drone attack killed three people in Russia's Belgorod region, officials said, as the World Health Organization condemned a strike that destroyed its medical supplies warehouse in Dnipro.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the two people killed by a Russian drone strike were in Kharkiv, where four floors of a residential building were destroyed. Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegoubov said 23 people were wounded.

Zelensky said eight people were wounded overnight in Odesa, where strikes damaged the power grid, the port and residential buildings. He also said a strike on energy infrastructure near a shopping centre in Pavlohrad, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, wounded nine people, including four children.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said a WHO warehouse storing medical supplies in Dnipro was destroyed in strikes on Friday. He said attacks on health care must stop and that health must be protected in war.

In Russia, Belgorod region acting governor Alexander Shuvaev said a Ukrainian drone attack on the border city of Belgorod killed three people and wounded 25, including children aged four and nine. He said fires broke out in cars, two apartment buildings and a house.

The Russian army said on Sunday that it had captured two small villages in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region. The claim has not been independently verified. One of the villages, Vasiutynske, is about 10 kilometres from Kramatorsk, a Ukrainian urban and logistics hub.

Zelensky said Russia was relying on “ballistic terror” and said 61 missiles of various types had been fired at Ukraine during the week. He called for more sanctions against Russia and more air defence for Ukraine.

In an evening address on Sunday, Zelensky defended Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries, air-defence systems and radar stations as responses to Russia's attacks. He said the war would be increasingly felt inside Russia.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres condemned both sides on Thursday over repeated attacks on civilian areas, saying attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure violate international humanitarian law and must stop. Russia's large-scale offensive against Ukraine began more than four years ago, and prospects for a peace agreement remain largely stalled.