Russia intensifies attacks in Ukraine's east, five killed

Russia has intensified its offensive in the eastern Ukrainian region even after the US Congress approved $61 billion in military aid to Ukraine.

Recently, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that vital US weapons were starting to arrive in the country in small amounts, but Kyiv continues to struggle as Moscow has begun using new powerful guided aerial bombs to devastating effect in its attacks in recent weeks. Meanwhile, Zelensky has urged that the process needed to move faster as advancing Russian forces are taking advantage.

Zelensky held a joint news conference in Kyiv alongside visiting NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg earlier this week on Monday. He noted that the situation on the battlefield directly depended on the speed of ammunition supplies to Ukraine.

"Timely support for our army. Today I don't see anything positive on this point yet. There are supplies, they have slightly begun, this process needs to be sped up," he said.

In the latest development, Ukrainian officials said that five people were killed on Wednesday (May 1) during a Russian attack on the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions.

The region's governor said that a guided bomb attack killed two people in the northeastern Kharkiv region bordering Russia. The eastern region has been under near-constant bombardment from Russian artillery. Notably, large parts have been occupied by Russian forces for months.

Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegubov said on national television on Wednesday morning that "two guided aerial bombs hit the centre of the town of Zolochiv," around 15 kilometres from the Russian border.

He wrote on Telegram, "We know of two dead and six injured civilians including an 11-year-old boy." Synegubov said that a man and a woman were killed in one car.

Russian shelling killed a 67-year-old woman in the village of Lelyukivka, which is further east in the Kharkiv region close to the city of Kupiansk.

Vadym Filashkin, the head of the region's military administration, said that in the eastern Donetsk region, two people were killed and six injured in the small town of Girnyk, about 15 kilometres from the front line.

"The Russians attacked the town with Uragans this afternoon," Filashkin wrote on Telegram, referring to rocket launchers. Those killed were a 57-year-old woman and a 64-year-old man, he added.

Chasiv Yar under heavy Russian bombardment for months

In a report on Wednesday, the news agency Reuters reported that the Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, has ordered more, and swifter, delivery of weapons.

The Russian defence ministry wrote on Telegram that the chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov, delivered a report to Shoigu at a meeting with the top military command for Moscow's fight in Ukraine.

"To maintain the required pace of the offensive… it is necessary to increase the volume and quality of weapons and military equipment supplied to the troops, primarily weapons," the report cited Shoigu as saying in a statement posted on Telegram.