A high-voltage power line to Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear plant was damaged by Russian forces just one day after electricity supplies were restored to the facility, said grid operator Ukrenergo on Monday.
Meanwhile, more than 160 civilian cars were able to drive out of the besieged southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol through a humanitarian corridor after repeated failed attempts at evacuation, the city authorities said on Monday.
The number of deaths in Mariupol, facing acute deprivation amid a prolonged siege, has topped 2,100, officials there said, with some authorities saying it is as high as 2,500 casualties.
While western Ukraine has largely been spared so far, Russian air strikes overnight Saturday into Sunday carried the war deep into the west, killing 35 people and wounding 134 at a military base near the city of Lviv -- which is dangerously close to the frontier with EU and NATO member Poland.
Further, on Monday, the capital Kyiv also saw shelling that killed two while a TV tower strike in western Ukraine reportedly killed nine. Two were also reported dead in Kharkiv.
Russia, on the other hand, claimed that an attack by Kyiv's forces on the separatist region of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine had left 23 people dead, with the military accusing Kyiv of committing a "war crime".
Washington and its EU allies have sent funds and military aid to Ukraine and imposed unprecedented economic sanctions on Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is also set to address the full US Congress on Wednesday regarding the war.
