LAST UPDATE | 1 May 2023

RUSSIAN MISSILE ATTACKS across Ukraine early this morning wounded 34 people in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, including children, regional authorities said.

The barrage came after another wave of attacks last week that ended a weeks-long pause after systematic Russian strikes during winter targeting key infrastructure.

“There are already 34 wounded due to a missile attack on the Pavlograd district,” Sergiy Lysak, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk region, said on social media.

“Five of them are children. The youngest is a girl and only eight years old,” Lysak said.

Ukrainian soldiers fire a cannon near Bakhmut in the Donetsk region (Libkos/AP) LIBKOS LIBKOS

Ukraine said Russia attacked at around 2.30 am (11.30pm Irish time), adding it had downed 15 out of the 18 missiles launched by Moscow’s forces.

The Russian defence ministry meanwhile said it had launched long-range precision strikes on Ukrainian ammunition production facilities.

“All assigned facilities were hit,” the defence ministry said in a statement.

Ukraine over the winter strengthened its air defences, including with US Patriot systems after it appealed to Western allies to help fend off Russian attacks on the energy grid.

Russian forces meanwhile have killed one person and wounded three others in the southern Kherson region, an official said.

Russia still controls part of the Black Sea region, having withdrawn from the eponymous regional capital last November.

Bakhmut

Most of the fighting in Ukraine in recent weeks has centred on the eastern Donbas region, particularly the city of Bakhmut.

More than 20,000 Russian combatants have died and another 80,000 were wounded in five months of fighting to capture the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, a White House official said today.

“We estimate that Russia has suffered more than 100,000 casualties, including over 20,000 killed in action,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

Kirby, saying he was citing newly declassified intelligence, said that about half of those killed were soldiers recruited by the private military company Wagner, which draws much of its ranks from prison populations in Russia.

The toll in Bakhmut – where Ukrainian troops are hanging onto only a small portion of the city – accounts for losses since the start of December, according to the US figures.

“The bottom line is that Russia’s attempted offensive has backfired after months of fighting and extraordinary losses,” Kirby said.

Kirby said he was not giving estimates of Ukrainian casualties because “they are the victims here. Russia is the aggressor.”

The White House will not put “information in the public domain that makes it any harder” for the close Western ally, whose army is being armed and trained by a US-led coalition of countries, he said.

© Agence France-Presse