At least one person was killed and another wounded in Russian attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region in the past day, according to Yurii Malashko, head of the Zaporizhzhia military administration.
“Over the past day, the enemy fired 85 times at 26 settlements in Zaporizhzhia region,” Malashko said in a post on Telegram Friday.
“Unfortunately, a 58-year-old resident of Mala Tokmachka was killed,” he said, and added that a 59-year-old man was also injured during shelling on the village.
Elsewhere in southern Ukraine, one person was injured in the Kherson region after Russian attacks over the past day, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson region military administration.
Prokudin said Russian attacks hit residential areas of the region’s settlements, a critical infrastructure facility, a building of an educational institution and territories of two farms. The attacks also hit a business and gym in Kherson city, he added.
Some context: Signs are growing that Ukrainian forces have penetrated Russian defenses along part of the southern front lines in Zaporizhzhia region and are expanding a wedge toward the strategic town of Tokmak, while stepping up attacks on Russian-occupied Crimea, as part of a slow moving counteroffensive.
The Ukrainian General Staff said Friday there had been further success in two areas – towards the village of Novoprokopivka and further east in the direction of another small settlement, Ocheretuvate.
On Thursday, the spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern command, Nataliya Humenyuk, said Russian forces were bringing more forces to the Zaporizhzhia area from Kherson to the south, due to the heavy casualties among units already there.
Yurii Malashko, head of Zaporizhzhia region military administration, said there were almost no buildings left standing in Robotyne, which the Ukrainians said they had secured earlier this week, after weeks of fighting in the area.