Russian targets struck in Ukraine, fighters cling to Mariupol

As the city of Lviv, to the west of the heavily bombarded region, reports a missile attack that killed six residents, Russia said Monday it had hit hundreds of military targets overnight, destroying command posts with air-launched missiles.

Additionally, the Russian air force had launched strikes on 108 Ukrainian military positions overnight, and the Russian army had fired on 315 Ukrainian military targets.

Mariupol, which has been besieged for weeks, would be a strategic prize for the Russian military, because it would link territories held by pro-Russian separatists in the east with the Crimea region Moscow annexed in 2014.

The Russian defense ministry said in a statement it had destroyed 16 Ukrainian military facilities in the Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Dnipropetrovsk regions and in the port of Mykolayiv, in the south and east of the country.

Lviv, just 60 km (40 miles) from Poland's border, was hit by missiles that struck military facilities and a tire service point. Andriy Sadoviy, the mayor of Lviv, said seven were killed and 11 were wounded.

18 April 2022