8th March 2024 – (Dobropillia) At least 14 individuals have lost their lives in a series of overnight assaults in Ukraine’s eastern region, where Russian forces have escalated their offensive in recent days. Ukraine’s emergency services reported that on Friday night, Russian strikes targeted the town of Dobropillia in the Donetsk region, resulting in 11 fatalities and leaving 30 others injured.
Emergency services indicated that the bombardment caused significant damage, affecting eight five-storey apartment buildings, an administrative building, and approximately 30 vehicles. Al Jazeera’s Assed Baig, reporting from Kyiv, noted that while rescue teams were attempting to extract victims from the debris, further strikes occurred in the area.
Dobropillia lies around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the front line in eastern Ukraine, close to the contested town of Porkovsk, where intense fighting has persisted for months. Reports suggest that Russian forces are attempting to seize Porkovsk and may have reached its southern outskirts.
In the Kharkiv region to the north, a Russian drone attack on a civilian building in Bogodukhiv resulted in the deaths of at least three people and injuries to seven more, according to the local governor, Oleh Synehubov.
Additionally, a drone strike in Odesa set off several fires, impacting a hangar housing agricultural equipment, a service station, a car parts store, solar panels, and a four-storey industrial structure. Meanwhile, Alexander Drozdenko, governor of the Leningrad region, reported that a tank at the Kirishi refinery, one of Russia’s largest, was damaged by debris from a Ukrainian drone that had been shot down.