A firefighter battles a blaze after Russian missile strike on Kharkiv, Ukraine, May 4, 2024 (Sofiia Gatilova/Reuters)

Saturday’s Coverage: 1st Weapons in $60.8 Billion US Aid Package Delivered

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1524 GMT:

A car bomb has killed a Russian official who allegedly oversaw the setting up of torture chambers in the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine, says Ukraine’s military intelligence agency HUR.

Yevgeniy Ananievsky was killed in his car early Saturday morning in the city of Berdyansk.

Russian security agencies confirmed the assassination, but did not give a name.

HUR did not admit responsibility said said every perpetrator of war crimes would receive fitting punishment.

Russian forces occupied the port city of Berdyansk in the initial weeks of the February 2022 invasion.

UPDATE 0625 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has posted his video message for Easter, celebrated in Eastern Orthodox denominations on Sunday.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Russia continued its air and ground attacks across Ukraine on Saturday, but lost an Su-25 fighter-bomber in operations near the frontline in the east.

At least two civilians were killed and others injured in the Russian assaults on the Kharkiv region in the northeast, Dnipropetrovsk in south-central Ukraine, and the port city of Odesa in the south.

Critical infrastructure, commercial buildings, and homes were damaged.

In Kharkiv, a 49-year-old man and an 82-year-old woman were killed and two men were injured by shelling. A Russian missile started a fire at a civilian enterprise in an industrial district of Kharkiv city, injuring six people.

In Odesa, also under regular attack by the Russians, three people were injured by a missile.

In Dnipropetrovsk, shelling injured a 57-year-old woman and damaged infrastructure in Nikopol, across the Dnipro River from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Two people were wounded in other attacks that damaged critical infrastructure and houses.

Overnight, air defenses downed 23 of 24 Iran-type attack drones launched by Russia. Falling debris injured four people, including a 13-year-old child, and set a fire in an office building in the Kharkiv region.

The Russian Su-25 was downed in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow’s forces are trying to advance.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced the downing without giving details.