Russian attacks in the southern Kherson region killed five civilians on Sunday, Ukrainian officials said, while Moscow-based officials in the eastern city of Horlivka said one person was killed by Ukrainian artillery fire.

The Russian armed forces decided to leave Kherson, the capital of the region of the same name on the Dnieper, as well as the west bank of the river, a year ago, but they continue to shell many areas there from their positions on the east bank.

The deaths in Kherson came as Russian artillery strikes against the city and surrounding areas intensified over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian officials said.

According to police, 3 people were killed when artillery fire hit an apartment building and a single-family house in the city of Kherson, a woman was killed in a drone strike in a small community south of the regional capital, and another woman was killed when another community was hit by artillery.

Oleksandr Tolokonikov, director of the press office of the regional military command, told Ukrainian state television that the Russian strikes partially cut off gas and water supplies, and that a health facility was also hit.

“Windows were broken, the building was damaged,” Mr. Tolokonnikov said.

In Harlivka, some 600 kilometers northeast of Kherson, in a sector of the Russian-controlled Donetsk region, Ukrainian shelling destroyed a shopping center and damaged other buildings, a Moscow-based official said.

A woman was killed and six other civilians were injured, the mayor of Harlivka, Ivan Prikhonda, said via Telegram.

Although Moscow and Kiev deny targeting civilians in the war that broke out when the Russian military invaded Ukrainian territory in late February 2022, both sides have routinely launched strikes against civilian infrastructure seen as critical to the armed forces on both sides. .