Russia stepped up airstrikes on major cities in Ukraine on Monday.

Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine, was also hit by rockets for the first time in days.

According to the authorities, seven people died and eleven were injured.

These are the first fatalities in Lviv, said the region's governor, Maxym Kosyzkyj.

Apparently, three military installations were hit, allegedly in the vicinity of railway facilities, and a car repair shop.

One of the explosions shattered the windows of a hotel housing refugees from other parts of the country.

Train traffic was hampered.

Gerhard Gnauck

Political correspondent for Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania based in Warsaw.

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Meanwhile, the Russian troops were fighting more intensely than before in the east of the country and, after heavy fighting, took the small town of Kreminna with almost 20,000 inhabitants.

Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, called the attacks on Monday the beginning of the "second phase" of the offensive in eastern Ukraine after the unsuccessful first phase lasted about 30 days.

Residents of Kharkiv should stay in the bunker

The new phase applies primarily to the previously unoccupied western part of the Luhansk region.

The governor of the region, Serhij Hajdaj, warned via social media that an evacuation from Kreminna is no longer possible.

The occupiers fired on a private car and killed the occupants.

He strongly advises against attempting to escape from the city on your own.

Evacuations will continue to be sought.

Further north, the city of Kharkov was intensively shelled;

on Monday there were deaths and injuries in residential areas.

The area administration asked residents on Monday to stay in bunkers and basements all day even without an air alarm.

According to the Ukrainian agency Unian, 18 people have been killed and 106 injured in Kharkiv over the past four days.

President Zelenskyy said in a video address: "This is nothing but premeditated terror.

Mortars, artillery against ordinary neighborhoods, against ordinary civilians.” Ukraine is doing everything to ensure defense.

Shelling was also reported from Kyiv and from the region around the city of Dnipro.

In the port city of Mariupol, which was extensively besieged by the Russians, Ukrainian units are apparently still resisting.

The city on the Sea of ​​Azov lies between the Russian-backed "People's Republics" of Luhansk and Donetsk and the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014.

Already at the weekend Zelenskyj had described the situation in Mariupol as "very difficult".

“Our military and injured people are trapped in the blockade (of the city).

There is a humanitarian crisis there, there is no food, no water, no medicine.

But the boys are defending themselves." There are negotiations with the Russians, "but there is no trust in the negotiators as far as Mariupol is concerned."

Apparently, the last Ukrainian units have entrenched themselves in the Azovstal steelworks.

The number of remaining civilians in the city, which originally had a population of 400,000, is estimated differently by Ukrainian officials at between 50,000 and 150,000 people.

The Ukrainian Minister for the Occupied Territories, Iryna Vereshchuk, called on Russia to allow evacuation corridors from Mariupol and from the Azovstal steel plant.

According to the United Nations, around five million people have left the country so far.

Several million are on the run in the country itself.

At the same time, more and more people who have left the country are returning to the country.

Medvedchuk offers himself for prisoner exchange

Meanwhile, Ukrainian opposition politician Viktor Medvedchuk has offered to swap prisoners.

The politician, who is considered a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin and has been in Ukrainian custody since last week, suggested in a video that he should be handed over to Russia.

In return, Ukrainian soldiers and civilians stuck in Mariupol could leave the port city via an escape corridor.

Two Britons, allegedly soldiers who were captured by Russian troops in Ukraine, asked on Russian state television to be exchanged for Medvedchuk.

In all cases it was unclear how freely the prisoners could speak.

According to Ukraine, the country is one step further with regard to the EU membership it is striving for.

The list of questions presented by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during her visit to Kiev on April 8 has been completed, President Zelenskyj's office said.

It is now up to the EU to decide whether all the criteria have been met.

It is expected to receive official candidate country status at the June 23-24 meeting of the European Council.