Five people were killed on March 20 as a result of Russian shelling of the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv during the afternoon as Kyiv's military said more than 60 combat clashes took place along the front line.
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Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov announced the fifth death late on March 20, saying on Telegram that rescuers had pulled the body from the rubble..
Seven of the eight people who were injured had to be hospitalized, said regional Governor Oleh Synyehubov.
An eight-story building and a factory were damaged, and a fire broke out in a print shop, said Serhiy Bolvinov, the head of the investigative department of the Kharkiv region's police force. Bolvinov also described damage caused to other commercial buildings.
Russian shelling of civilian targets earlier on March 20 killed at least two people in the Kherson region when the car they were in was hit, the head of the region's military administration, Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram.
The attacks came as Kyiv's forces launched a barrage of drone and missile strikes on the Russian border regions of Belgorod and Kursk. Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said three civilians were killed on March 20.
On the battlefield, the Ukrainian military said Russian forces carried out most of the 67 attacks launched on March 20 in the areas of Novopavlovsk, Avdiyivka, and Lyman. They also attacked in the Bakhmut, Orikhiv, and Kherson areas, the General Staff said. For the first time in a long time, combat clashes were not reported in the Kupyansk area, the report added.
In addition to the clashes, Russian forces launched two missiles and conducted dozens of air strikes using various weapons.
The General Staff also reported that Ukrainian aviation struck 10 areas of Russian troop concentrations, weapons, and military equipment. Ukrainian missile forces also hit a Russian ammunition warehouse, the General Staff said.
The General Staff report could not be independently verified.
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Russia Evacuates Children From Area Near Ukraine Border
Earlier on March 20 Ukrainian intelligence sources told RFE/RL that Ukrainian drones attacked a Russian air base that houses strategic bombers located near the city of Engels in the Saratov region in an attack planned and executed by the Main Directorate of Ukraine's Military Intelligence (HUR).
The air base, known as Engels 2 and located some 700 kilometers away from the Ukrainian border, has been used by Russian strategic bombers in attacks against Ukraine.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that early on March 20 "targets had been hit" by Ukrainian-made drones and the results of the attack were being assessed, without disclosing what targets and how many of them had allegedly been hit.
Earlier on March 20, Roman Busargin, the governor of the Russian region of Saratov, said a drone attack on Engels was "repelled." Busargin said on Telegram that there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
Engels residents reported on social media up to four explosions in the city. Russia's Defense Ministry said four Ukrainian drones were shot down over the Saratov region and one over the Belgorod region.
Engels, which is some 700 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, was targeted in previous attacks in 2022.
The claims could not be independently verified.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy welcomed Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren to the city of Dnipro where she "witnessed firsthand the devastation caused by Russian air terror," the president said on X, formerly Twitter.
"We focused on strengthening Ukraine's air defense, providing our defenders with artillery, armored vehicles, and UAVs," Zelenskiy said after meeting Ollongren. "I am grateful to the Netherlands for all of its support and important decisions for Ukraine."
White House national-security adviser Jake Sullivan also visited Ukraine on March 20, telling a joint press conference in Kyiv with Ukrainian presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak that a major U.S. aid package, which has been blocked by Republicans in Congress for months, would pass.
"From our perspective we are confident we will get this done. We will get this aid to Ukraine," Sullivan said.
Sullivan gave no timeline for the arrival of the aid but said there was no need to talk about a "plan B," an apparent reference to an idea that has been floated by Republicans to provide the aid in the form of a loan.
"I am confident that we will achieve plan A. We will get a strong bipartisan vote in the House [of Representatives] for an assistance package for Ukraine, and we will get that money out the door as we should," he said. The process has "already taken too long."