At least 28 people were murdered by Ukrainian shelling at a bakery in the Russian-occupied city of Lysychansk, according to officials stationed in Moscow.
Regarding the tragedy, Kyiv-based Ukrainian officials remained silent.
In the nearly two-year-old conflict, Moscow and Kyiv have both become more dependent on longer-range attacks this winter while maintaining essentially constant positions on the 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) front line.
However, the Ukrainian General Staff claimed in a statement on Sunday that Russian forces have been attacking Ukrainian soldiers fiercely for the past 24 hours, with constant assaults along the front line.
According to officials, there has been intense fighting in the eastern city of Avdiivka, where Moscow is trying to encircle Kyiv's soldiers. In addition, Ukrainian forces have been on the defensive in Bakhmut, Kupiansk, Lyman, and Zaporizhzhia.
According to Donetsk regional governor Vadym Filashkin, a Russian artillery strike in the frontline town of Toretsk, less than 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) from Bakhmut, resulted in one civilian casualty and two injuries.
Russian forces shelled the area in 16 separate attacks the day before, firing on the border settlements of Yunakivka, Bilopillia, Krasnopillia, Velyka Pysarivka, and Esman, according to the military administration for the northern Sumy region of Ukraine on Sunday. The commander of the Ukrainian Joint Forces, Gen. Serhii Naiev, added that forces from Kyiv had driven back Russian reconnaissance and sabotage teams that were trying to infiltrate the border in the Sumy region.
Given that the majority of Ukraine's soldiers are stationed in the country's east, in the areas of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv, the reported incursion raises the possibility that Moscow is looking for weaknesses on a new front in an effort to further deplete Ukrainian resources.
