A Ukrainian plane has crashed during a “technical flight” in southern Ukraine and there are casualties, local authorities have said.
The AN-26 plane, a military transport aircraft operated by the Ukrainian armed forces, crashed on Friday morning in the Vilnia district in the Zaporizhzhia region, the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration said.
The circumstances of the crash are being verified and there will be more information later, the authorities added.
Russian forces took 40 villages in east Ukraine on Thursday, but President Zelensky says these and other gains are only temporary.
“They can only delay the inevitable, the time when the invaders will have to leave our territory,” Mr Zelensky said.
Physical damage to Ukraine’s buildings and infrastructure from Russia’s invasion has reached roughly $60bn (£46bn), according to the World Bank.
Zelensky said Ukraine needed $7bn (£5.4bn) a month to make up for economic losses caused by the invasion.
Russia’s Vladimir Putin ordered his troops not to storm the Azovstal steel plant, where the last group of Ukrainian fighters in Mariupol is holding out
Instead, the president told them to seal it up so even a “fly” cannot escape, and says Russia has control of the strategic port city.
Source: BBC
