While the Ukrainian army reported little on offensive operations by Russian forces around Kyiv and parts of the south on Saturday, further fighting in the east continued to rage.
Two children died in the town of Rubezhnoye after they were pulled out from under the rubble of an apartment building shelled by Russian artillery, emergency services said.
The collapse of the same building killed a woman; her daughter survived and is in stable condition.
Some context: Rubizhne is part of a group of small towns and villages that remain in Ukrainian hands but are close to two pro-Russian breakaway states in eastern Ukraine.
The latest assessment by the Ukrainian army of the war makes it clear that they are currently seen as the focus of a Russian campaign in the east – to link the two strongholds around Lugansk and Donetsk with the territorial gains made in the northwest around Kharkiv.
The Army Central Command’s Saturday morning bulletin reported on a series of Russian offensives, with “main efforts focused on attempts to capture Severodonetsk, Rubizhne and Popasnaya.”
Further death and destruction: On Friday, four people were killed and ten injured when Russian artillery opened fire on a number of communities in the region, local Ukrainian authorities said.
The head of the region, Sergei Gaidai, said that a total of 54 houses were damaged, including 19 apartment buildings and two medical centers.
By the end of the day, 23 cities and villages were left without gas, 26 without electricity.
Many of those injured in recent days were among the 700 people evacuated along the humanitarian corridor on Saturday, Haidai said.