The Ukrainian General Staff reported heavy fighting Sunday due to Russian advances on the front lines in eastern Ukraine.
A total of 104 instances of combat were registered over the course of the day, it said in a post on Facebook, adding that a large number of the Russian attacks were carried out with artillery support.
The general staff said most of the fighting took place around the embattled city of Pokrovsk on the edge of the Donbass region, where 43 Russian advances were reported. The attacks by Russian forces were repelled, it said.
It was not possible to independently verify the reports.
Earlier on Sunday, authorities reported that at least two people had been killed and 35 others injured in drone strikes on Saturday evening on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
There were five children among the injured, military governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram. Several neighborhoods were affected.
The Ukrainian General Staff reported that a military hospital, where soldiers wounded in the war are being treated, had also been hit.
It is a violation of international humanitarian law to attack such targets, it said.
There was also damage to a shopping center, residential buildings and an office building, authorities said.
According to the Ukrainian air defense, there were a total of 111 attacks with unmanned aerial vehicles and dummy drones without explosives. The Ukrainian military said it shot down 65 drones in the north, south and east of the country, while 35 more were lost. There was damage in Sumy, Odessa and Donetsk regions, according to the military.
Meanwhile Ukraine revised the number of casualties from Saturday’s Russian drone attacks on the city of Dnipro to 28 from the previously reported 24.
Four people also died. The city has organized a day of mourning on Sunday. Several seriously injured people are still in hospital.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday accused Russian leader Vladimir Putin of a lack of interest in a peaceful settlement to the war.
“The geography and brutality of Russian strikes, not just occasionally, but literally every day and night, show that Putin couldn’t care less about diplomacy,” Zelenskyy said in his evening video address.
“For several weeks now, there has been a U.S. proposal for an unconditional ceasefire. And almost every day, in response to this proposal, there are Russian drones, bombs, artillery shelling, and ballistic strikes,” Zelenskyy said, advocating for more pressure to be put on Russia.
“Russia deserves increased pressure — all the tough measures that can break its capacity to wage war and sustain the system that wants nothing but war.
“Sanctions against Russia are essential. More air defense for Ukraine is essential. More cooperation and unity among all partners is essential.”
The Ukrainian leader accused Moscow of “looking for excuses to drag this war out even further.”
“Putin is playing the same game he has since 2014,” Zelensky said referring to the illegal annexation by Moscow of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in 2014. “This is dangerous for everyone — and there should be an appropriate response from the United States, Europe, and all our global partners who seek peace.”
Ukraine has been defending itself against Russia’s full-scale invasion for more than three years.