Russian shelling kills one in Ukraine

Russian shelling killed a 45-year-old civilian man in the town of Kupiansk on Tuesday, local officials said, as Moscow’s forces try to advance in northeastern Ukraine.

Russia seized Kupiansk in the northeastern region of Kharkiv soon after its invasion in February 2022, but Ukrainian forces recaptured the town last September and it is now under daily fire.

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Some residents remain in the town, but regional authorities have ordered a mandatory evacuation of civilians from near the Kupiansk front because of the difficult situation.

Regional governor Oleh Synehubov said the man killed on Tuesday was a guard at a meat processing plant that was hit in the latest shelling. The prosecutor general’s office said a 67-year-old man had also been hurt during the shelling.

Kupiansk was home to about 27,000 people before the war and is a rail hub about 100 km (62 miles) east of the regional capital, Kharkiv. Losing the town a second time would be a considerable blow to Kyiv’s battlefield momentum.

Reuters could not verify the situation in the town, or reports of fighting elsewhere.

Ukrainian troops began a counteroffensive in the east and south in early June but have made slow progress through Russian minefields and trenches blocking their southern push, intended to reach the Sea of Azov and split Russian forces.

A military spokesperson said Ukrainian forces were pushing on southwards in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia after recapturing Robotyne, the latest of a cluster of settlements and villages it say it has taken back in recent weeks.

Kyiv also said its troops had had some “success” in the direction of the village of Verbove in the Zaporizhzhia region, but gave no details.

But officials said over 50 children, plus family members and people with limited mobility, were being evacuated from five settlements in the region because of “the difficult security situation and enemy shelling.”

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said fighting was heavy in the country but that Ukrainian forces were making progress around the Russian-occupied city of Bakhmut in the east.

Russian officials had said Moscow’s forces are holding their ground in Bakhmut, and have not confirmed the loss of Robotyne.

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