By David Averre For Mailonline
Published: 07:54 EDT, 10 May 2022 | Updated: 15:03 EDT, 10 May 2022
The bodies of 44 civilians have been found in the rubble of a building destroyed by Russian airstrikes in eastern Ukraine, according to officials.
The civilians were inside a five-storey building that collapsed amid a bombardment in the city of Izyum in the Kharkiv region in March, said Oleg Synegubov, the head of the regional administration.
'This is another horrible war crime of the Russian occupiers against the civilian population,' he said, confirming the news on his official Telegram channel - though he did not give an exact location for the site of the tragedy.
Putin's forces have been holding Izyum as a key position in its battle along the eastern front, but Ukraine's armed forces have mounted counter offensives in towns and villages around the city and regional capital Kharkiv in recent days.
On Monday it was reported that Ukrainian forces had seized the towns of Rubizhne and Lyptsi to the north of Kharkiv around 10 miles from the Russian border.
If Kyiv's troops can reach the border, it will open up the prospect of cutting Russia's main supply route from Belgorod to its forces around Izyum - where some of the heaviest fighting is taking place.
Images from the village of Drobysheve, a town not far from Izyum and close to the strategically important town of Lyman, showed emergency services helping elderly women who had been injured by shelling into the back of an ambulance.
It comes as Ukraine's vital Black Sea port of Odesa was repeatedly bombed overnight, with several Russian missiles - some thought to be hypersonic - destroying a shopping centre and several warehouses.
One person was killed and five hurt, the military said, as footage of the incident showed huge fires lighting up the night sky.
‹ Slide me › A firefighter surveys the destruction at the site of a Russian missile attack in Odesa last night. The same view is pictured this morning showing the extent of the devastation after firefighters managed to extinguish the blaze
A handout photo released by the press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine on 10 May 2022 shows firefighters putting out a fire at the site of a missile strike in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa, Ukraine, 09 May 2022
A first responder works at the site of a missile strike, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Odesa, Ukraine in this handout image released May 10, 2022
The smouldering, twisted ruins of a shopping trolley are pictured lying outside the remains of a shopping centre hit by Russian airstrikes
A shopping mall is destroyed as a result of missile strikes launched by Russian aircraft in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, southern Ukraine
A dog is seen at a site of a shopping centre destroyed by shelling amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Odesa, Ukraine, May 10
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Odesa city council released images of the devastation caused by the missile strikes this morning on their Telegram channel
A Russian supersonic bomber fired three hypersonic missiles as part of the barrage according to Ukrainian think tank Centre for Defence Strategies
One person was killed and five hurt in the overnight missile attacks according to officials
The bodies of 44 civilians have been found in the rubble of a building destroyed in March by Russian airstrikes in the eastern Ukrainian city of Izyum, according to officials (rubble at a hospital in Izyum is pictured)
A total of seven strikes were launched on targets where Ukrainian forces were storing weapons and ammunition, according to Russian authorities.
A Russian supersonic bomber fired three hypersonic missiles as part of the barrage according to Ukrainian think tank Centre for Defence Strategies.
The centre identified the weapons used as Kinzhal, or 'Dagger', hypersonic air-to-surface missiles.
The Kinzhal can fly at five times the speed of sound and has a range of 1,240 miles.
Using advanced guided missiles allows Russia to fire from aircraft at a distance without being in Ukrainian air space and exposed to potential anti-aircraft fire.
But Ukrainian, British and American officials warn Russia is rapidly expending its stock of precision weapons and may not be able to quickly build more, raising the risk of more imprecise rockets being used as the conflict grinds on.
That could result in more civilian deaths and other collateral damage.
Ukrainian sources claimed the remaining missiles fired in the attacks on Odesa last night were Soviet-era weapons with poor guidance systems.
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An Ukrainian firefighter works near a destroyed building on the outskirts of Odesa, Ukraine, Tuesday, May 10, 2022. The Ukrainian military said Russian forces fired seven missiles a day earlier from the air at the crucial Black Sea port of Odesa, hitting a shopping center and a warehouse
Emergency services work at a site of a shopping centre destroyed by shelling amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Odesa, Ukraine, May 10, 2022
According to Ukrainian authorities, one person was killed and at least two others wounded as a result of shelling in Odesa on 09 May evening. A shopping center and three warehouses were hit by shelling, emergency services added
One person was killed and five more were injured as Russians fired seven missiles on Odesa, Monday, May 9 (aftermath pictured today)
Ukrainian investigators work near a destroyed building on the outskirts of Odesa, Ukraine, Tuesday, May 10, 2022
Putin's forces have been holding Izyum as a key position in its battle along the eastern front, but Ukraine's armed forces have mounted counter offensives in towns and villages around the city and regional capital Kharkiv in recent days (A Ukrainian serviceman near his position near the city of Izyum, Kharkiv area, Ukraine, 02 May 2022)
Rescuers carry a woman, wounded by Russian shelling, in Drobysheve, in Donetsk region, Ukraine May 9, 2022
Law enforcement officers find a woman wounded during Russian shelling, according to the police, in the basement of her home in Drobysheve, in Donetsk region, Ukraine May 9 2022
Emergency workers move a person wounded during Russian shelling, according to the police, from one stretcher to another in Drobysheve, in Donetsk region, Ukraine May 9 2022
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The strikes came after Russian President Vladimir Putin marked his country's biggest patriotic holiday without being able to boast of major new battlefield successes.
He watched troops march in formation and military hardware roll by in a Victory Day parade on Moscow's Red Square in a celebration of the Soviet Union's role in the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany.
Many Western analysts had expected Putin to use the Victory Day holiday to trumpet some kind of victory in Ukraine or announce an escalation, but he did neither.
Instead, he sought to again justify the war as a necessary response to what he portrayed as a hostile Ukraine.
'The danger was rising by the day,' Putin insisted in yesterday's speech.
'Russia has given a pre-emptive response to aggression. It was forced, timely, and the only correct decision.'
Intense fighting also raged in Ukraine's east, and Russian forces sought to end the resistance of Ukrainian defenders making their last stand at a steel plant in Mariupol.
One of the Ukrainian fighters holding out at the steel plant said they were still defending the city.
Valeri Paditel, who heads the border guards in the Donetsk region, said the fighters were 'doing everything to make those who defend the city in the future proud'.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military warned on Tuesday that Russia could target the country's chemical industries.
The claim was not immediately explained in the report, but Russian shelling has previously targeted oil depots and other industrial sites during the war.
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Thousands of Russian troops formed up in the Red Square as Russia marked the day Nazi Germany surrendered in 1945, marking the end of the Second World War in Europe
Monday's Victory Parade was designed to project an image of Russian strength, despite the war in Ukraine grinding towards a stalemate
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Smoke rises from the Azovstal steel works, in the city of Mariupol, where a last band of Ukrainian defenders continue to hold out against Russian attempts to storm the industrial complex
One of the Ukrainian fighters holding out at the steel plant (pictured on Sunday) said they were still defending the city. Valeri Paditel, who heads the border guards in the Donetsk region, said the fighters were 'doing everything to make those who defend the city in the future proud'
Satellite pictures analysed by The Associated Press showed two ships off Ukraine's Snake Island on Monday afternoon.
One of the ships seen in the images from Planet Labs PBC appeared to be a landing craft.
Ukraine has repeatedly struck Russian positions there recently, suggesting Russian forces may be trying to re-staff or remove personnel from the Black Sea island.
Footage released by Ukraine's Armed Forces over the weekend showed a similar landing craft being destroyed in a Bayraktar TB-2 drone strike, while two Ukrainian jets dropped bombs on the island's main complex.
Ukraine's forces also claimed to have destroyed several Raptor-class patrol ships, including one which may have been used by Putin to inspect naval fleets and conduct military parades.
It comes as pictures emerged of the wreckage of a Russian Mi-28 attack helicopter - one of the Russian army's most versatile and widely used aerial vehicles - which was shot down in the Kharkiv region.
After unexpectedly fierce resistance forced the Kremlin to abandon its effort to storm the capital Kyiv over a month ago, Moscow's forces have concentrated on capturing the Donbas, Ukraine's eastern industrial region.
But the fighting there has been a back-and-forth, village-by-village slog.
Some analysts suggested Putin might declare the fighting a war, not just a 'special military operation', and order a nationwide mobilisation, with a call-up of reserves, to fight an extended conflict.
In the end, he gave no signal as to where the war is heading or how he might intend to salvage it.
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The vessel was obliterated by a laser-guided bomb dropped from a Ukraine-operated Bayraktar TB2 drone near Snake Island in the Black Sea
Ukraine is claiming that it may have destroyed Vladimir Putin's special 'parade boat' which he uses to inspect his naval fleets (Putin pictured on board the Raptor-class patrol vessel in St Petersburg in 2020)
A Ukrainian Bayraktar TB2 drone captured two Ukrainian Su-27s flying low from the south, dropping multiple bombs on the Russian-held Snake Island
Ukrainian armed forces also posted a video claiming to show a military drone hit on a Russian landing ship supplying a TOR anti-aircraft missile system to Snake Island
Satellite image showing the jetty where the landing ship was sitting when it was hit by a Ukrainian drone on Snake Island off the coast of Ukraine
Pictures emerged of the wreckage of a Russian Mi-28 attack helicopter which was shot down in the Kharkiv region
The Mi-28 'Havoc' attack helicopter is one of the Russian army's most versatile and widely used aerial vehicles
This image shows the remains of the tail of an Mi-28 RF-13654 attack helicopter that was destroyed somewhere in the Kharkiv region
Military medics talk to a wounded soldier receiving treatment after withdrawing from the city of Popansa, in the Donbas, which has now fallen into the hands of Russian troops
A Ukrainian military medic prepares to receive patients at a makeshift ward near the city of Popansa, where heavy fighting has been ongoing with Russian forces that have now taken control of it
Specifically, he left unanswered the question of whether or how Russia will marshal more forces for a continuing war.
'Without concrete steps to build a new force, Russia can't fight a long war, and the clock starts ticking on the failure of their army in Ukraine,' tweeted Phillips O'Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.
Nigel Gould Davies, former British ambassador to Belarus, said: 'Russia has not won this war. It's starting to lose it.'
He said that unless Russia has a major breakthrough, 'the balance of advantages will shift steadily in favour of Ukraine, especially as Ukraine gets access to growing volumes of increasingly sophisticated western military equipment'.
As Putin laid a wreath in Moscow, air raid sirens echoed again in the Kyiv.
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared in his own Victory Day address that his country will eventually defeat the Russians.
'Very soon there will be two Victory Days in Ukraine,' he said in a video.
He added: 'We are fighting for freedom, for our children, and therefore we will win.'
An adviser to Zelensky interpreted Putin's speech as indicating that Russia has no interest in escalating the war through the use of nuclear weapons or direct engagement with Nato.
In Washington, President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan measure to reboot the Second World War-era 'lend-lease' programme, which helped defeat Nazi Germany, to bolster Kyiv and eastern European allies.
Russia has about 97 battalion tactical groups in Ukraine, largely in the east and the south, a slight increase over last week, according to a senior US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the Pentagon's assessment.
Each unit has roughly 1,000 troops, according to the Pentagon.
The official said that overall, the Russian effort in the Donbas has not achieved any significant progress in recent days and continues to face stiff resistance from Ukrainian forces.
Putin is just an evil little man
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