Rockets smashed into the mayor’s office of a Ukrainian city controlled by pro-Russian separatists Sunday, an attack attributed to Ukrainian forces that have been regaining ground in a major military counteroffensive.

The rockets seriously damaged the municipal mayor’s building in Donetsk, blowing out windows and partially collapsing a ceiling.

Smoke rose from the government building, and nearby cars burst into flames. No injuries were reported.

The pro-Moscow separatists who control Donetsk blamed Kyiv, but Ukraine did not claim responsibility nor comment on the attack.

The separatists aligned with Russia have accused Ukraine of several recent strikes in occupied regions, but without corroborating evidence.

Ukrainian officials blamed Russia, meanwhile, for a rocket attack Sunday on a city near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that is held by Russian troops. Six people were wounded.

The assault in the Zaporizhzhia region, which was illegally annexed along with three other Ukrainian provinces by Russia last month, damaged power lines, gas pipelines, businesses and residential buildings.

Ukraine began its southern counteroffensive almost seven weeks ago, making significant gains against the Russian forces that initially invaded in February nearly eight months ago.

In response, Russia last week launched sweeping coordinated air and missile raids on critical Ukrainian infrastructure as well as residential homes and neighborhoods.

The wide-ranging retaliatory attacks by Russia have utilized self-destructing explosive drones from Iran and killed dozens of people.

Despite the annexation of Zaporizhzhia, an estimated one-fifth of the region remains under Ukrainian military control, and the Russian strikes are seen by some experts as a strategy to subdue the territory.

Russia has attacked villages and other civilian locations as well in the Kharkiv, Luhansk and Kherson regions, where Ukraine has been waging its counter offensive.

In Zaporizhzhia, Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of strikes dangerously close to the nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, which is being run by its Ukrainian staff under Russian oversight.

Russian-occupied territory has been the scene of mass forced deportations of Ukrainians, according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, which said the involuntary movement of residents could constitute ethnic cleansing.

Russian authorities have announced that several thousand children from an occupied southern region were placed in rest homes and children’s camps in Russia during the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Investigators are seen through a broken window as they work at the site of the damaged administrative building after shelling in Donetsk, the capital of Donetsk People's Republic, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022.

They previously said children from Russian-held areas of Ukraine, who they claimed were orphans, were being put up for adoption with Russian families. The move is seen as a potential violation of international law against genocide.

In another blow to the Russian military over the weekend, two men opened fire on soldiers training at a Russian military firing range near Ukraine, killing 11 people.

The shooters were killed by return fire. Fifteen other people were wounded.

The Saturday shooting took place in Belgorod, a region bordering Ukraine that is used as a staging area for the war by the Russian military.

The Russian Defense Ministry called the shooting a terrorist attack. It said the two men came from an unnamed former Soviet republic and shot volunteer soldiers during target practice.

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“During a firearms training session with individuals who voluntarily expressed a desire to participate in the special military operation (against Ukraine), the terrorists opened fire with small arms on the personnel of the unit,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement quoted by Russian media.

The shooting came as Russian President Vladimir Putin has been ordering the large-scale inscription of men into the nation’s military, sparking protests and prompting hundreds of thousands of Russians to flee the country.

In Russia, nearly every man under age 65 is listed as a military reservist.

Putin said last week that more than 220,000 reservists had been called up in the effort to conscript 300,000.

France, meanwhile, on Sunday confirmed its pledge of air defense missile support to protect Ukrainian cities against drone strikes. It also stepped up its combat and logistics training of Ukrainian soldiers.

France has been the subject of international criticism that it has dragged its feet in its backing of besieged Ukraine.

With News Wire Services

Ellen Wulfhorst

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