Ukraine 'hits missile launch sites in Russia'
The mayor of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv has said that the situation there has been "calmer" since Russian missile launchers shelling it were hit by Ukrainian fire.
Ihor Terekhov's comments came nearly two weeks after the US and other Western nations gave the go-ahead for Ukraine to hit targets inside Russia near Kharkiv.
He was speaking at a conference in Germany attended by President Volodymyr Zelensky which is aimed at encouraging European nations to support and invest in Ukraine.
The defence ministry said Tymkivka in Kharkiv region and Miasozharivka in Luhansk region had been taken by its forces. Ukraine has not commented.
He also denied reports by the pro-Russian Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov that his forces had captured a village in Sumy region, which borders Russia to the west of Kharkiv, saying there was no Russian presence in the area.
On Tuesday the Ukrainian president gave his first ever speech to the Bundestag, the German parliament, making emotional references to Germany’s Cold War history of division and calling on future reparations from Russia for the damage it had caused.
