At least six people injured in shelling of Russian town bordering Ukraine: Russian official

A Russian official says at least six people have been injured in cross-border shelling in a Russian town, where several residential buildings were also damaged.

The attack occurred in the town of Klintsy, in the Bryansk region on the border with Ukraine, on Tuesday, the regional governor said.

 Alexander Bogomaz said on the Telegram messaging app that the number of injured had risen to six from an earlier tally of four.

"Those injured have shrapnel wounds," Bogomaz wrote. "They were all admitted to a local hospital. Their condition is stable."

The shelling came a day after at least five people were killed in the breakaway region of Donetsk. Officials and Russian news agencies reported several Ukrainian artillery strikes, including on a market and a maternity hospital in the city of Donetsk, on Monday.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric condemned the attack, saying, "Any attack on civilian infrastructure, especially health facilities, is a clear violation of international law."

Regional officials reported an upsurge in Ukrainian shelling in eastern Ukrainian towns, while Kiev keeps denying carrying out any attacks on the two regions, the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a military campaign in Ukraine in late February. At the time, Putin said one of the goals of what he called a "special military operation" was to "de-Nazify" Ukraine.

Russia set to take full control of Luhansk in east Ukraine ‘within weeks: US defense official

Russian forces are set to seize full control of the Luhansk region within weeks, a senior US defense official was quoted as saying on Monday, amid heavy fighting in the eastern Ukrainian region.

The war in Ukraine inflamed tensions between Russia and the West, with the US and its NATO allies slapping unprecedented sanctions on Moscow and supplying large caches of weapons to Ukraine in defiance of warnings from the Kremlin.

Ukrainian president asks for more long-range weapons

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a plea to Western allies on Tuesday to speed arms deliveries.

"We have enough weapons. What we don't have enough of are the weapons that really hits the range that we need to reduce the advantage of the Russian Federation's equipment," the president added.

Early this month, US President Joe Biden approved a new $700-million weapons package for Ukraine, including helicopters, Javelin anti-tank weapon systems, tactical vehicles, spare parts, and more. The advanced rocket systems that can precisely strike long-range targets are capable of traveling about 70 kilometers.

Russia immediately condemned the move as "pouring oil on the fire" of war in Ukraine, saying that Moscow was skeptical about Kiev not firing such rockets into Russia as the war rages on.

Biden said previously that he was "not going to send to Ukraine rocket systems that can strike into Russia." 

Germany is also providing Ukraine with the Panzerhaubitze 2000 — one of the most powerful artillery weapons that can hit targets at a distance of 40 kilometers.

Germany's defense minister said on Tuesday that the training of Ukrainian troops on German artillery systems would soon be completed, paving the way for the use of the weapons in the war with Russia.

Ukrainian Presidential Adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Monday that Kiev needed howitzers artillery systems, 500 tanks, and 1,000 drones among other heavy weapons.

Russia warns of hitting ‘new targets’ if West upgrades Ukraine arms

Russia warns of ‘hitting new targets’ in Ukraine if the latter was to be supplied with upgraded Western arms.

The Russian president warned earlier this month that if longer-range missiles were supplied to Ukraine, "we will strike at those targets which we have not yet been hitting."

The Russian military destroyed a large depot containing US and European weapons in the Ukrainian region of Ternopil, said the Russian Defense Ministry on Sunday. According to the Interfax news agency, Russian forces used Kalibr cruise missiles to attack the large depot. 

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