Zelensky calls on West to ease targeting restrictions on Ukraine as glide bombs hit frontline

DONETSK REGION, Ukraine (AP) — Drone footage released Sunday by the Ukrainian military appears to show bodies in a civilian area in the embattled city of Toretsk in eastern Ukraine, which has come under heavy Russian shelling in recent days.

The attacks in the war-torn Donetsk region have prompted Ukrainian emergency services to step up evacuation efforts. Local officials said powerful Russian glide bombs Bombs have also been used in the city, the latest flashpoint on the Eastern Front, as Russian attacks continue to push Ukrainian front-line units onto the defensive.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Russia had dropped more than 800 glide bombs over Ukraine last week alone.

“Ukraine needs the necessary means to destroy the carriers of these bombs, including Russian fighter jets, wherever they are. This step is essential,” he wrote in an online post.

In Toretsk, police volunteers helped elderly residents out of their homes by carrying a woman from her bed onto a stretcher.

“It’s a terrible situation because we couldn’t evacuate for three days,” Oksana Zharko, 48, told the Associated Press as she left the city in a police car with family members and a cat in a plastic box.

“Yesterday there was an attack and our house was destroyed – it is very strong, there are no walls left. Everyone is stressed, emotional, in tears. It is very scary.”

The Russian attacks of the last few weeks have focused on the city Chasiv Yar further north, while Ukrainian commanders in the region say their resources remain stretched, largely due to a months-long hiatus in U.S. military aid.

Ukraine is still struggling to stabilize parts of its front line after urgently needed military assistance was approved by the United States in April.

Zelensky called on countries helping Ukraine to further ease restrictions on the use of Western weapons to attack military targets in Russia.

“Clear decisions are needed to protect our population,” he said. “Long-range strikes and modern air defenses are the basis for stopping everyday Russian terror. I thank all our partners who understand this.”

Hours after Zelenskyy’s speech, Ukrainian officials said Russian glide bombs had been dropped near a post office in Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine in the north-east, One employee was killed and nine people were injured, including an eight-month-old baby.

According to a statement from the private postal and courier service Nova Poshta, which operates the warehouse, at least seven delivery trucks caught fire during the strike, at least three others and the warehouse itself were damaged, and one driver died.

Up to nine people were trapped under the burning rubble and rescue teams were combing the accident site on Sunday evening, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram.

Less than a day earlier, Russian missiles struck a city in southern Ukraine, killing seven civilians, including children, and injuring dozens, local authorities reported.

Ukrainian officials released photos of bodies sprawled under picnic blankets in a Vilnius park and of deep craters in the blackened earth next to the charred, twisted remains of a building.

At least 38 people were injured in the attack on Saturday evening, authorities said, and declared Sunday a day of mourning. Vilniansk is located in the Zaporizhia region, less than 30 kilometers from the capital and north of the front line, as Russian troops continue to occupy parts of the province.

Russian-appointed officials in partially occupied Donetsk, which has been illegally annexed by Moscow, said Ukrainian artillery fire on Sunday injured a four-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl. Russia’s Emergencies Ministry also said four of its employees were fired on Sunday as they tried to put out a fire in the Kremlin-occupied capital Donetsk.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported on Sunday that its forces shot down three dozen Ukrainian drones overnight over six regions in southwestern Russia. It later said a total of 72 drones were shot down on Saturday and overnight.

Debris from a drone fell on a village in the Kursk region, blowing out windows and damaging roofs and fences, according to a Telegram post by regional governor Alexei Smirnov.

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Associated Press writer Joanna Kozlowska in London contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine