Kyiv: Six people were killed and 75 others were injured when Russian ballistic missiles struck an apartment building and a university building in President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown on Monday, according to Ukrainian officials. Residents were trapped under rubble as a result of the explosions.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko stated that one of the two missiles that struck Kryvyi Rih's central city destroyed a portion of an apartment block between the fourth and ninth floors. On a street lined with trees, video showed burned-out or damaged cars and corner units spewing black smoke.

According to Zelensky, the victims included a mother and a 10-year-old girl. He stated in a Telegram post that the rescue effort involved more than 350 people.

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A portion of a four-story university building was also destroyed in the morning attack.
The attack on Zelensky's hometown, which has previously been targeted, took place a day after the Ukrainian president appeared to issue a warning regarding additional attacks inside Russia.

Zelensky said in his nightly video address on Sunday that "gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia — to its symbolic centres and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural, and absolutely fair process."
It was unclear if the missile attacks were in response to his remarks.

According to Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-installed leader of the illegally annexed province, a Ukrainian artillery strike on the partially occupied Donetsk province resulted in the deaths of two people and the injuries of six others in the regional capital.

As Ukrainian forces repeatedly shelled Donetsk on Monday, a bus was also hit, according to Pushilin.

According to Yevgeny Balitsky, the acting regional governor backed by Russia, three people were killed and 15 were injured in Ukrainian shelling that hit a store in the village of Basan, which is located in the Russian-controlled portion of the Zaporizhzhia region.

The claims made by each side could not be independently confirmed.

Last week, the ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive—which is using weapons provided by Western allies and aims to drive Russian forces out of occupied territory—got more intense. At the same time, Ukraine reportedly used drones to attack targets as far away as Moscow in an effort to extend the war into Russian territory.

Attacks by Ukrainian drones on Russian and Moscow-annexed territory, particularly Crimea, have increased. A few miles (kilometres) from the Kremlin, two office buildings were damaged in the most recent strike on Sunday. The attack was not acknowledged by Ukrainian officials.

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After that attack, Russia tightened security, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who called the assault a "act of desperation."

The counteroffensive is not going as planned, Peskov said, "putting the Kyiv regime in a very, very difficult situation."
The many billions of dollars in resources that NATO nations have given the Kyiv regime are clearly being mismanaged, according to Peskov.

"This raises significant concerns in Western capitals and significant unease among Western taxpayers."
According to analysts, Russian President Vladimir Putin is betting that as the war drags on and costs rise, Western support for Kiev will decline.

Early on Monday, a second Ukrainian drone targeted a district police station in the bordering Russian region of Bryansk, but no one was hurt, according to the local governor.

Moscow's military strategy throughout the war has been to bombard populated areas with missiles, artillery, and drones, and this strategy has persisted during the Ukrainian counteroffensive that began in June.

Russian officials maintain that they only attack legitimate military targets, but Ukraine and its allies claim that the widespread killing of civilians during earlier attacks is proof of war crimes.

"The enemy has been obstinately attacking cities and city centres, shelling civilian targets and housing in recent days," Zelensky said. But this terror won't scare us or destroy us.

According to Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, his country's forces have intensified their attacks on Ukrainian military installations.

Given that recent Russian missile strikes on civilian infrastructure as well as military targets were unclear at first.

In recent weeks, Russian airstrikes in the southern city of Odesa targeted grain silos and port infrastructure after Moscow terminated a deal to export Ukrainian grain. On Monday, the Ukrainian foreign ministry estimated that during the previous nine days, Russia had destroyed about 180,000 metric tonnes of grain.

In the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, four civilians were also killed and 17 others were injured by Russian shelling on Monday. Authorities reported that a 70-year-old woman was killed by shelling while at home in a village in the Kharkiv province close to Izyum.

Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko reported that after Russia shelled 12 cities and villages in the Donetsk province of eastern Ukraine, seven people were hurt.

Other recent developments China imposed limitations on the export of long-range civilian drones on Monday. Authorities cited the conflict in Ukraine and their worry that drones might be modified for use in warfare.

The government of China's president Xi Jinping is friendly with Moscow but declares itself to be neutral in the conflict. It has been hurt by rumours that both sides may be employing drones made in China for attacks and reconnaissance.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group of Russian mercenaries, announced on Monday that no fighters are being sought by his organisation.

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The company has halted hiring, according to Prigozhin, who claimed in an audio message posted on a Telegram channel connected to the Wagner CEO that there is "no shortage of personnel."

In a previous interview, Prigozhin acknowledged that he lost more than 20,000 soldiers in the protracted conflict for the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

Last month, Prigozhin led a brief rebellion against Moscow in which he called for a change in command in the Russian military. Russian authorities insisted that Wagner fighters could only go back to Ukraine if they enlisted in Russia's regular army in an effort to control him.