RUSSIAN STRIKES KILLED two people overnight in the Ukrainian region of Lviv, the local governor said, as the country’s infrastructure continued to come under attack. 

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged his nation to endure as the country passed its third Easter since Russia’s full-scale invasion. 

Russian cruise missiles targeted critical infrastructure in the western Lviv region, killing two people, governor Maksym Kozytsky wrote on Telegram.

He said one man had been killed after an “administrative building” was destroyed, and rescuers later found the body of another under the rubble.

National energy operator Ukrenergo said Russia also targeted high-voltage facilities in the south, forcing emergency shutdowns in the Black Sea city of Odesa and nearby areas.

“There is no night or day when Russian terror does not try to break our lives,” Zelenskyy wrote in an Easter Sunday message to Ukrainians on social media, after the air force reported downing nine missiles and nine drones overnight.

“But we defend ourselves, we endure, our spirit does not give up and knows that it is possible to avert death. Life can prevail,” he said.

Moscow has intensified strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities in recent weeks, saying it is responding to attacks by Kyiv on Russian border regions.

Energy consumption restrictions remained in place in Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv and Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rig following earlier Russian attacks, Ukrenergo said today.

The Ukrainian army is on the back foot with the Russian invasion making advances recently. 

Ukraine is suffering ammunition shortages on the front line and pleading for more support from Western countries, particularly the United States, where a spending bill remains stalled in Congress. 

Yesterday, Zelenskyy dismissed a long-time aide and several advisers in a continuing reshuffle.

He removed top aide Serhiy Shefir from his post of first assistant, where he had served since 2019.

The Ukrainian president also let go three advisers and two presidential representatives overseeing volunteer activities and soldiers’ rights.

No explanation was given immediately for the latest changes in a wide-reaching personnel shake-up over recent months.

It included the dismissal on Tuesday of Oleksii Danilov, who served as secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, and Valerii Zaluzhnyi as head of the armed forces on 8 February. He was appointed Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom earlier this month.

Includes reporting from AFP and Press Association