Russia Targets Kharkiv With Drones And Missiles In Overnight Attack

Russia targeted the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv with missile and drone strikes overnight, the Ukrainian military said on March 31, as fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces for the control of Bakhmut and other key towns in the eastern region of Donetsk continued.

Russian forces targeted civilian infrastructure in the city of Kharkiv with nine missile strikes launched from S-300 air-to-surface systems and 10 Iranian-made Shahed drones, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in its daily report, adding that nine drones were destroyed.

Emergency services were assessing the situation on the ground. It was not immediately know if there were casualties among the civilian population.

"The enemy continues to ignore the laws and customs of war, using terror tactics against the peaceful citizens of our country," the military said.

Heavy fighting continued in and around Bakhmut, where the Ukrainian defenders repelled 22 attacks over the past 24 hours, and in Avdiyivka, Lyman, and Maryinka.

A civilian was killed and six others were wounded by Russian shelling in the area around Bakhmut, the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kirylenko, wrote on Telegram on March 31.

Bakhmut, a mining city with a prewar population of 70,000 people, has become the epicenter of Russia's offensive for the control of eastern Ukraine. About 2,000 civilians are thought to be left in the city that has been all but razed to the ground.

In southern Ukraine, the city of Zaporizhzhya was also targeted by overnight shelling by Russia that damaged civilian infrastructure, the secretary of the Zaporizhzhya City Council, Anatoliy Kurtev, reported on Telegram.

Kurtev said no people were injured.

The latest fighting came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy marked the 400th day of Russia's full-scale invasion, saying in his evening address on March 30 that his country is preparing its next steps but did not explicitly mention an anticipated counteroffensive.

Zelenskiy said that during those 400 days, Ukraine has come a "colossal way" through its struggle, citing the recapture of areas of the Kharkiv region and the city of Kherson along with the ongoing defense of Bakhmut and the Donbas region in general.

"This is the heroism of Ukrainians, which the world will not forget," he said, adding, "We are preparing our next steps, we are preparing our active actions, approaching victory.... We will not leave a single trace of Russia on our land, and we will not leave any enemy unpunished."

Ukrainian military commanders have said a counteroffensive is not far off, but Zelenskiy indicated earlier this week that Kyiv is still waiting on "sufficient weapons" before mounting any major attacks.