Russian missile strikes hit eastern Ukraine, killing five and injuring 31

Missile strikes in Pokrovsk, Ukraine killed five people and injured 31 including 19 policemen and a child (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)

Two Russian missile strikes hit the city centre of the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region on Monday, killing five people and wounding at least 31, Ukrainian officials have said.

Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said one of the strikes, which targeted the Ukrainian portion of a region partially occupied by Russia, killed four civilians, and the other killed the deputy head of the regional branch of Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.

At least 31 people — including 19 policemen, five rescuers and one child — have been wounded in the attack, the official said.

The strikes damaged a hotel, residential buildings and other civilian structures, according to Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of trying to leave nothing but “broken and scorched stones” in eastern Ukraine.

His remarks accompanied footage of a damaged, five-story residential building with one floor partially destroyed.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has fired draft board directors in all of Ukraine’s regions in efforts to stamp out corruption (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office/AP)

The deadly attack came just a day after officials from around 40 countries gathered in Saudi Arabia to find a peaceful settlement for the war in Ukraine.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry denounced the two-day talks in Jeddah as not having “the slightest added value” because Moscow — unlike Kyiv — was not invited.

A statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry repeated previous assurances that Moscow is open to a diplomatic solution on its terms that would end the 17-month-old war, and that it is ready to respond to serious proposals.

The Kremlin’s demands include Kyiv recognising its annexation of four Ukrainian regions, which Russian forces at this point only partially control, and Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014.

But Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Mr Zelenskyy, ruled out Moscow’s previous demands that would give Russia time to dig in deeper in the parts of Ukraine it has occupied.

He said that Russian forces must fully withdraw from the occupied areas and there would be no compromise by Kyiv on that.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Security Service announced on Monday that it had detained an alleged Russian informant who gathered intelligence about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s trip to the southern Mykolaiv region last month.

Emergency services work at a scene of destroyed residential area after a Russian attack in Mykolaiv, Ukraine. Details of Mr Zelensky’s visit to the city last month were the target of a Russian informant, who has been detained by authorities (Ukraini

It claimed the woman “was collecting data for an airstrike during Zelenskyy’s visit”.

The woman attempted to establish Zelenskyy's route, times and visits in the region.

She was detained when she tried to pass the information to the Russians, the statement said, without providing evidence.

Mr Zelenskyy has been a prime target for the Kremlin since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, when he refused to leave Kyiv as Moscow’s forces approached.

He has been one of Ukraine’s unexpected trump cards in the war, playing a key role in rallying public morale, including a nightly video address, and becoming a recognisable face across the world as he presses allies and others to help Ukraine.

Also on Monday, Russian shelling struck a nine-story residential building in the city of Kherson, killing one person and wounding four others, according to regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

Mr Prokudin said Kherson had endured a “tough night” as the Russians “covered the central part of the city with fire”.

A 57-year-old woman was killed and four people were wounded in the Russian shelling of a village in the north-eastern Kharkiv province, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.