Russian missile strikes killed at least six people overnight in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa and in the eastern region of Donetsk as Moscow continues its intense aerial attacks on its neighbor.
Russia has intensified its air attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks as Kyiv prepared to launch its long-awaited counteroffensive to reclaim territory occupied by Russian forces. Last week, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged the operation was under way, with Moscow responding by ratcheting up further its strikes with cruise missiles and drones targeting major cities around the country.
At least three people were killed and 13 wounded in a Russian missile strike on Odesa, the Ukrainian military's southern command said early on June 14.
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Russia fired four Kalibr missiles at the Black Sea port, hitting warehouses, a business center, a school, a residential complex, and a downtown store, the military said, adding that more people could be under the rubble. It said that two of the four missiles had been shot down.
The three victims were workers at a retail store warehouse, the military reported.
In Donetsk, three people were killed by Russian missiles in Kramatorsk and Kostyantynivka, regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Facebook.
"Two people were killed and two were wounded in Kramatorsk, one was killed and one wounded in Kostyantynivka," Kyrylenko said.
"Missiles launched by the Russians hit private homes and caused significant damage: in Kramatorsk, they destroyed at least five houses and damaged two dozen more, in Kostyantynivka -- two destroyed and 55 others damaged," he said.
The Ukrainian air defense said on June 14 that the Russian strike targeted military and civilian infrastructure facilities with air and sea-based cruise missiles as well as Iranian-made kamikaze drones.
"From the Black Sea, the enemy attacked with four Kalibr cruise missiles in the direction of Odesa. Three rockets were shot down, one hit a civilian objective," the air defense said in a statement.
Ukrainian air defenses also shot down nine out of 10 drones, the statement said.
Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region also came under attack for a second day in a row, regional Governor Serhiy Lysak said on June 14.
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Three drones were shot down by air defenses, Lysak said, adding that Nikopol was shelled by Russian heavy artillery. There were no immediate reports of casualties, Lysak wrote on Telegram.
On June 13, 12 people were killed and 13 more, including three children, were wounded in a Russian missile strike on a five-story apartment building in the Dinipropetrovsk city of Kryviy Rih.
Meanwhile, Rafael Grossi, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, postponed a visit to the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine scheduled for June 13, an unnamed senior Ukrainian government official told Reuters. "He's waiting to be able to travel safely," the official said, after Grossi met with Zelenskiy on June 12 in Kyiv.
Grossi told journalists after his meeting with Zelenskiy that the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant faces "a relatively dangerous situation" from both the Kakhovka dam burst last week and the start of Ukraine’s counteroffensive.
Meanwhile, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine was making progress in its counteroffensive and predicted NATO leaders will increase military assistance to Kyiv when they meet next month.
Stoltenberg made the comments as he met at the White House with President Joe Biden on June 13.
Stoltenberg's visit to Washington came as Ukraine attempts to seize back territory as part of a long-awaited counteroffensive against the Russian invaders.
SEE ALSO: Ukraine Goes On The Offensive, Trying To Turn The Tide Of Battle -- Once And For All"The support that we are providing together to Ukraine is now making a difference on the battlefield as we speak because the Ukrainians have launched the offensive," he said. "They are making advances; they are gaining ground."
Biden reiterated that the U.S. commitment to NATO was rock-solid and that NATO allies would "be building on that momentum" when they meet in Vilnius next month.
As the meeting took place, the U.S. State Department announced a new $325 million package of ammunition and heavy weaponry to top up Ukraine's supplies.
The Ukrainian military said that seven settlements had been liberated in the southern and eastern regions of the country and further advances had been made in Bakhmut amid heavy fighting.
"Both defensive and offensive fierce fighting is ongoing in the east and south of our nation. We have certain gains, implementing our plans, moving forward," said Valeriy Zaluzhniy, commander in chief of Ukrainian forces.
The claims could not be independently confirmed, and Moscow has not acknowledged any Ukrainian gains.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin who has been one of the most virulent defenders of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, on June 14 said that Moscow had "no constraints" to prevent it from destroying Western undersea communications cables following what he said was the West's "proven complicity" in the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines last year.
The Washington Post reported earlier this month that the United States had learned of a Ukrainian plan to attack the pipelines three months before they were damaged by the underwater explosions.
The Ukrainian government has repeatedly denied any involvement in the explosions. Russia has also denied it was behind the blasts.
"If we proceed from the proven complicity of Western countries in blowing up the Nord Streams, then we have not even moral constraints left to prevent us from destroying the ocean floor cable communications of our enemies," Medvedev, who is now deputy head of Russia's Security Council, said on Telegram.