On Saturday, Russia strengthened its defenses in the Kherson region and intensified its bombardment of many Ukrainian sites, and while the European Union denounced what it described as the Kremlin's blind terrorism, Ukrainian forces launched missile attacks on neighborhoods in the Donetsk region that are under pro-Moscow authorities.

The Ukrainian authorities in Odessa said that their forces shot down two Russian missiles on Saturday, targeting the province from Crimea, which has been under Russian control since 2014.

Al-Jazeera correspondent in Kherson province reported the continuation of artillery exchanges between the Ukrainian and Russian forces along the banks of the Dnipro River.

The Ukrainian authorities in the province also reported continued Russian shelling of the city and towns on the contact line.

The Ukrainian Southern Operations Command said that the Russian bombing continued on infrastructure facilities in the provinces of Mykolaiv, Odessa, Zaporizhia and Dnipro in the south of the country.

She pointed to severe cuts in electricity and water in those provinces in addition to Kherson.

The Ukrainian General Staff said that the Russians continue to strengthen their defense lines at the borders of the Kherson region and the Crimea peninsula.

She added that the Russian forces began to withdraw some of their units from Kakhovka and Nova Kakhovka from the Kherson region to other regions, talking about more Russian withdrawals from the southern province by the end of the year, she said.

Ukraine also confirmed the killing of 3 civilians and the wounding of 13 others in Russian bombing of Dnipro in the south.


intense bombing

In Donetsk, the Al-Jazeera correspondent reported that the city was subjected this morning to intense Ukrainian shelling that targeted several neighborhoods, and quoted the local authorities as saying that houses were damaged as a result of the bombing.

The authorities counted one dead and 7 wounded in the Ukrainian bombing of Donetsk province during the past hours.

And the TASS news agency quoted the pro-Russian authorities in Donetsk as saying that the Ukrainian forces bombed separate areas in the province with 10 Grad missiles.


The wildest day

And yesterday, Ukrainian officials said that the Russian forces launched a missile attack on Friday, which they described as the largest and most violent since the start of the war, on Ukrainian cities and provinces, including the capital, Kyiv.

These strikes mainly targeted the energy infrastructure.

In his first comment on the Russian attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that "Russia's resort to intensive missile strikes will not change the balance of power in the war."

Zelensky indicated that he would work with European partners to impose sanctions on Moscow leading to an end to the war, warning that Russia still has sufficient quantities of missiles to launch massive strikes, as he put it.


war crimes

In turn, the European Union's foreign policy official, Josep Borrell, denounced the massive Russian attack, describing it as "the Kremlin's blind terrorism," referring to the commission of war crimes, he said.

Borrell said - in a statement - that "these brutal and inhumane attacks aim to exacerbate human suffering and deprive the Ukrainian population, as well as hospitals, emergency services and other basic services of electricity and heating. They are barbaric and constitute war crimes, for which all those responsible must be held accountable."

A spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, Yuriy Ignat, confirmed that the Russian missile attack, which targeted a number of the country's provinces, was carried out by about 60 missiles launched from the Caspian and Black Seas.