Sawt Falasteen - Russia strikes kill six in Kyiv, Moscow says captured key town

Drones and missile strikes hit at least 27 locations in Kyiv in the early hours, city officials said.

"As of now, the services have confirmed six deaths," including a six-year-old boy, Tymur Tkachenko, head of the city's military administration, said in a post on Telegram.

"We have 52 wounded people, almost 30 are in hospitals. Including nine children," he wrote.

"It's a horrible morning in Kyiv. The brutal Russian strikes destroyed entire residential buildings and damaged schools and hospitals. Civilians are injured and killed. There are still people under the rubble," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga wrote on X.

Russia's latest deadly attack on Ukraine came just days after US President Donald Trump issued a 10-day ultimatum for Moscow to halt its invasion of Ukraine, now in its fourth year, or face sanctions.

- Key capture in east -

Russia said it had captured the town of Chasiv Yar, which had been a strategically important military hub for Ukrainian forces in the east.

The town "was liberated by Russian forces", Russia's defence ministry said in a statement.

If confirmed, the capture of the town that has been the site of battles for months will mark the latest locality to fall to Russian forces, who have been making incremental but steady territorial gains for months.

The fall of the hilltop town now paves the way for Russian forces to advance on remaining civilian strongholds in the eastern Donetsk region, like the garrison city of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, important logistical bases for the Ukrainian military and home to many civilians, who have up to now not fled the fighting.

The Kremlin has made the capture of the Donetsk region its military priority and already in late 2022 claimed that the industrial territory was part Russia.

Kyiv has been trying to repel Russia's summer offensive, which has made fresh advances into areas largely spared since the start of the invasion in February 2022.

Thursday's attack came on the heels of a Russian strike on a military training camp, which killed at least three Ukrainian soldiers on Tuesday.

Following Thursday's strikes, Ukraine's foreign minister called for the international community to apply utmost pressure on Moscow to end the war it launched in February, 2022.

"President Trump has been very generous and very patient with Putin, trying to find a solution," Sybiga wrote.

But Russian President Vladimir Putin "does not care about any attempts to put an end to the killing. He only seeks to destroy and kill. Because the entire existence of this war criminal is based on this senseless war, which he cannot win but refuses to end."

"It's time to make him feel the pain and consequences of his choices. It's time to put maximum pressure on Moscow," Sybiga wrote.

- Corruption law -

Thursday's attacks came just hours before a crucial parliamentary vote to overturn a highly criticised law that curbed the powers of anti-graft bodies.

President Volodymyr Zelensky changed the law after the original legislation sparked the largest public unrest since Russia's invasion more than three years ago.

The law had put the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) under the direct authority of the prosecutor general, who is appointed by the president.

Critics said the move could facilitate presidential interference in corruption probes.

Several hundred people staged a new protest in the rain in central Kyiv on the eve of the vote to put pressure on lawmakers. "Hands off NABU and SAPO," they chanted.

"I hope that things will improve somehow, but it will be almost impossible to completely restore our reputation," Olena, a 51-year-old IT worker, told AFP at the protest.

European allies had been worried that the law would undermine anti-corruption reforms key to Ukraine's bid to join the EU, but supported the new amendments.

M.Qasim--SF-PST