Ukraine: On Thursday, Russian forces attacked the northern Chernihiv region with missiles for the first time in weeks, which Ukraine claimed was retaliation for defying the Kremlin.
In the meantime, Ukrainian authorities declared a counteroffensive to retake the south of the country's occupied Kherson region, which was taken by Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces early in the conflict.
Oleksii Hromov, a senior official with the Ukrainian General Staff, claimed that Russia attacked the Kyiv region with six missiles fired from the Black Sea, striking a military unit in the village of Liutizh on the outskirts of the capital.
According to him, one building was destroyed and two were damaged in the attack, and one of the missiles was shot down in Bucha by Ukrainian forces.
Five of those injured in the Russian airstrikes were civilians, according to Oleksiy Kuleba, the regional governor of Kyiv.
Kuleba connected the assaults to the Day of Statehood, which was observed for the first time in Ukraine on Thursday and was established by President Volodymyr Zelensky last year.
According to Kuleba, "Russia is mounting its retaliation against the widespread popular resistance that the Ukrainians were able to organise precisely because of their statehood with the aid of missiles." "Ukraine will continue to defend itself and has already disrupted Russia's plans."
The Russians also launched missiles at the village of Honcharivska from the territory of Belarus, according to Vyacheslav Chaus, the governor of the Chernihiv region. There had been no recent attacks on the Chernihiv region.
After failing to take either region, Russian troops withdrew from the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions months ago. Following Denis Pushilin's call for Russian forces to "liberate Russian cities founded by the Russian people - Kyiv, Chernihiv, Poltava, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lutsk," pro-Kremlin separatists in the east have resumed their attacks.
Andriy Raikovich, the deputy governor of Ukraine's Kirovohrad region, reported that five people were killed and 25 injured in a Russian rocket attack on the city of Kropvynytskyi, about 250 kilometres (150 miles) southeast of Kyiv. He claimed that the attack damaged civilian aircraft when it hit hangars at an air academy.
The mayor of Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine, claims that shelling continued throughout the night. Russian shelling of a power plant in the Kharkiv region, according to the authorities, resulted in the death of a police officer.
Additionally, Mykolayiv in the south received gunfire, injuring one person, according to reports.
The Ukrainian military continued its counterattack in the Kherson region while doing so, taking out of service on Wednesday a crucial bridge over the Dnieper River.
The operation to liberate Kherson is underway, according to Oleksiy Arestovich, a presidential adviser for Ukraine, who was quoted by Ukrainian media. Kyiv's forces intend to isolate Russian troops and give them the choice to "retreat, if possible, surrender, or be destroyed."
The Russians are concentrating their strongest forces in the direction of Kherson, according to Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, who also issued a warning: "A very large-scale movement of their troops has begun."
According to the British military, Ukraine has damaged at least three of the Dnieper bridges that Russia uses to resupply its forces with new long-range artillery from the West.
On Thursday morning, the presidential office of Ukraine reported that nine people had been injured and at least five civilians had been killed as a result of Russian shelling of towns and cities over the previous 24 hours. All of the victims were from the eastern Donetsk province.
Donetsk province has been the scene of intense fighting lately. It has gotten worse recently as Russian forces have reportedly resumed operations after seizing the neighbouring province of Luhansk.
Two civilians were reportedly killed by a Russian bombardment of the town of Toretsk, according to Ukrainian emergency authorities. According to officials, a missile that struck a residential building there early on Thursday morning destroyed two floors.
"Again, missile terror. We won't surrender. Governor of the Donetsk region Pavlo Kyrylenko stated on Telegram, "We won't be intimidated.
According to military analysts, Russian forces are concentrating their efforts on seizing Bakhmut and Siversk in the Donetsk province.
In order to remind Ukrainians of their nation's history as an independent state, Zelensky established the Day of Statehood. The celebration honours Prince Vladimir, who, more than a thousand years ago, proclaimed Christianity the state religion of the Kyivan Rus state.
The president stated in a Day of Statehood address that "you could say that for us, every day is a statehood day."
"We fight every day so that everyone on the planet can finally understand: We are a free, independent, sovereign, indivisible and independent state," Zelensky said. "We are not a colony or enclave or protectorate, not a province, an eyalet, or a crown land, not a part of foreign empires, not a part of a country, not a federal republic, not an autonomy, not a province.
The Kyivan Rus heritage is also claimed by the Kremlin. Putin built a memorial to Prince Vladimir close to the Kremlin in 2016.
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