Russian bombs hit towns near Kyiv, oil depots as strikes intensify

Russian aircraft bombed cities in eastern and central Ukraine overnight, Ukrainian officials say.

Shelling pounded suburbs of the capital, Kyiv. Bombs also hit oil depots in Zhytomyr and the neighboring town of Cherniakhiv, located west of Kyiv. The state emergency service shared video and pictures of massive fireballs as the depots burned.

Earlier, regional leader Dmytro Zhivitsky said bombs fell on residential buildings and destroyed a power plant in Sumy and Okhtyrka, east of Kyiv. He said there were dead and wounded but gave no figures.

The Ukrainian government is demanding the opening of humanitarian corridors to allow people to safely leave Sumy, Zhytomyr, Kharkiv, Mariupol and suburbs of Kyiv, including Bucha.

With Ukrainians trying to hold the assault at bay, Russia has engaged in more long-range attacks — a mix of bombardments, rocket launches, artillery strikes and more than 625 missiles — to make up for their lack of movement on the ground, the Pentagon said Monday.

Bombardments have increased around the capital Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv in the north, and Mykolaiv and Mariupol in the south, and they “are having an increased effect on civilian casualties” and destroying homes, churches, hospitals and schools, spokesman John Kirby said.

“The bottom line is, more civilians are being killed and wounded,” he added.