Authorities have reported multiple explosions in western and southern Ukraine, with seven people killed in the city of Lviv, as Russian forces claimed near full control of the strategic southern port of Mariupol following almost two months of bloody fighting.
Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadoviy said in addition to the seven people killed, 11 were wounded — including a child — with the blast shattering the windows of a hotel housing Ukrainians evacuated from elsewhere in the country.
Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozystkiy said four rockets were fired, with three hitting warehouses, and another one striking a car tyre depot.
After originally announcing the death toll at six, Mr Kozytsky later confirmed a seventh fatality, adding he believed the rockets were fired from aircraft from the direction of the Caspian Sea.
According to media outlet Suspilne, two people were wounded in the city of Dnipro in a separate attack.
Meanwhile, the Russian military has refocused its ground offensive on Donbas, while launching long-distance strikes at targets elsewhere, including the capital, Kyiv.
Four civilians were shot dead while trying to flee by car from the town of Kreminna in the eastern Luhansk region during a Russian attack, regional governor Serhiy Gaidai said in a post on messaging app Telegram.
A fourth person was seriously injured, he said.
'Artillery against ordinary civilians'
Eighteen people have been killed and more than 100 wounded in shelling in the past four days in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Russia denies targeting civilians and has rejected what Ukraine says is evidence of atrocities as staged to undermine peace talks.
It describes its action as a special military operation to demilitarise Ukraine and eradicate what it calls dangerous nationalists.
The West and Kyiv accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of unprovoked aggression.
Ukrainians ignore surrender demands in Mariupol
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said troops in the pulverised port of Mariupol were still fighting on Monday, despite a Russian demand to surrender by dawn.
"The city still has not fallen," he told ABC America, adding that Ukrainian soldiers continued to control some parts of the south-eastern city.
On Saturday, Russia said it had control of urban areas, with some Ukrainian fighters remaining in the Azovstal steelworks overlooking the Sea of Azov.
Capturing Mariupol would be a strategic prize for Russia, linking territory held by pro-Russian separatists in the east with the Crimea region Moscow annexed in 2014.
It would unite Russian forces on two of the main axes of the invasion, and free them up to join an expected new offensive against the main Ukrainian force in the east.
On the streets of Mariupol, small groups of bodies were lined up under colourful blankets, surrounded by shredded trees and scorched buildings.
'Winter will be hard'
Residents, some pushing bicycles, picked their way around destroyed tanks and civilian vehicles while Russian soldiers checked the documents of motorists.
One resident, Irina, was evacuating with a niece who had been wounded in the shelling.
"I have a daughter in DNR," she said, referring to the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.
"Maybe we will try to move there for the time being.
Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of Luhansk, repeated a plea for people to evacuate.
"The next week will be difficult," he said in a post on his Facebook page.
"It may be the last time we have a chance to save you."
About four million Ukrainians have fled the country, cities have been shattered and thousands have died since the start of the invasion on February 24.
Reuters/ABC
