Russia hits shipbuilding centre in Ukraine

Relatives and friends pay their last respects to Liza, a 4-year-old girl, killed by a Russian attack, in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, on Sunday. Pic/AP

Russian missiles hit industrial facilities at a strategic city in southern Ukraine Sunday as Moscow continued efforts to expand its gains in the country's east. Moscow also said it shot down a Ukrainian MI-17 helicopter and a SU-25 aircraft.

Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said that the Russian missiles struck an industrial and infrastructure facility in the city, a key shipbuilding centre in the estuary of the Southern Bug river. There was no immediate information about casualties. Mykolaiv has faced regular Russian missile strikes in recent weeks as the Russians have sought to soften Ukrainian defences.

The Russian military has declared a goal to cut off Ukraine's entire Black Sea coast all the way to the Romanian border. If successful, such an effort would deal a crushing blow to the Ukrainian economy and trade and allow Moscow to secure a land bridge to Moldova's separatist region of Transnistria, which hosts a Russian military base.

Early in the campaign, the Ukrainian forces fended off Russian attempts to capture Mykolaiv, which sits near the Black Sea Coast between Russia-occupied Crimea and the main Ukrainian port of Odesa. Since then, the Russian troops have halted their attempts to advance in the city but continued to pummel it with regular missile strikes.

For now, the Russian military has focused its efforts on trying to take control of Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland of Donbas, where the most capable and well-equipped Ukrainian forces are located. Ukraine says it still retains control of two small villages in the Luhansk region, one of the two provinces that make up the Donbas, and is fending off attempts to advance deeper.

5,000
Civilian deaths in Ukraine

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