Russia takes blows as many Ukrainians struggle to survive

STORY: This is the aftermath of shelling by Ukrainian forces in the eastern city of Donetsk on Sunday… the main entry into the building was hit and several nearby cars damaged.

That’s according to the head of the Russian-backed administration of the city, Aleksei Kulemzin, who added that, “administrative work hasn’t been stopped or paralyzed.”

The city has been controlled by the Donetsk People’s Republic since 2014.

There was no immediate reaction from Ukraine to the attack.

Meanwhile, in Russia’s Belgorod region some 50 miles north of Kharkiv, two gunmen shot 11 people dead at a military training ground Saturday.

Russia’s RIA news agency, citing the defense ministry, said the gunmen opened fire with small arms during a firearms training exercise, targeting personnel who had volunteered to fight in Ukraine.

RIA said the gunmen, who it referred to as “terrorists,” were shot dead.

Reuters was not immediately able to independently verify casualty numbers nor other details.

Russia has opened a criminal investigation, authorities said Sunday.

The incident comes days after Russian President Vladimir Putin said the country should be finished calling up reservists in two weeks, promising an end to the divisive mobilization.

In Minsk on Sunday, the Belarusian defense ministry said just under 9,000 Russian troops would be stationed in the country as part of a "regional grouping" of forces to protect its borders.

Fighting has been particularly intense over the weekend in the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, and the strategically important Kherson province in the south, three of the four provinces Putin proclaimed as part of Russia last month.

In the southern city of Mykolaiv, residents queued – as they do every day – to fill water bottles at a distribution point after supplies were severed by fighting early in the war.

Inna Hlushchenko, a timekeeper at a factory, spoke to Reuters.

"They (Russians) blew up a water pipeline in some village. Since then, the mayor can't re-establish water supply to our town because active fighting is going on there. Our people can't get there."

And in a settlement near Kupiansk on the frontline in northeast Ukraine, people are struggling for food and electricity during a time when temperatures at night are just above freezing.

Although Ukrainian troops have recaptured thousands of square miles of land in recent offensives in the east and south, officials say progress is likely to slow once Kyiv's forces meet more determined resistance.