Ukraine launches missile attack on Russian-occupied Melitopol

• Melitopol and Donetsk report explosions.
• A military facility in Crimea exploded.

The southern Ukrainian city of Melitopol, which is now under Russian control, the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, and Crimea have all reported multiple explosions, including one near a Russian military barracks.

The explosions in Melitopol occurred as both Russian and Ukrainian officials reported that 20 missiles had struck the Donetsk People’s Republic early on Sunday morning.

Separately, there have been reports of numerous explosions in the Crimean peninsula that Russia has occupied, including at a military base in Sovietske.

Melitopol’s mayor reported multiple explosions, including at a church that was being used by Russian soldiers, while the city’s Moscow-installed administrators said four missiles struck the city, killing two people and injured ten others.

Melitopol, DPR, was struck by missiles Melitopol, in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast of Ukraine, has been occupied by Russia since early March.

The missile attack on Melitopol, according to Yevgeny Balitsky, acting governor of Zaporizhzhia, Russia, “totally damaged” a recreation center where “folk, citizens, and [military] base employees were eating dinner on Saturday night.”

Ivan Fedorov, the previous administration of the Ukrainian city of Melitopol, confirmed the strikes and claimed they were directed at Russian military installations.

Federov last month said Russia had turned Melitopol into “one giant military base.”

“The Russian military is settling in local houses they seized, schools and kindergartens. Military equipment is stationed in residential areas,” Federov said in November.

The Melitopol mayor Ivan Fedorov said there had been several explosions, including at the Melitopol Christian Church, “which the occupiers seized several months ago and turned into their hideout.”

There were dead and wounded among the Russian military there, according to Fedorov, who is not in Melitopol.

Russian officials reported Sunday morning that Ukrainian missiles had struck a number of residential complexes in the Donetsk People’s Republic and that some of them had come down close to the Kalinin Hospital and the Opera and Ballet Theater.

The head of the city administration, Alexei Kulemzin, reported that Ukraine fired 20 Grad missiles into the Voroshilovsky and Kalininsky neighbourhoods at 5:54 a.m. local time on Sunday.

Kulemzin claimed that late Saturday night, at approximately 11:03 p.m. local time, Ukraine shelled the city’s Kyivskiy neighborhood as well.

The military of Ukraine has not yet acknowledged or responded to the assault.

Also Read

Ukraine: Russia launches drones at Odesa and Kyiv

Both sides of the war have hit the southern part of Ukraine....