Russian forces took control of the village of Volokhivske in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region and continued to hit infrastructure used by Kyiv’s military in the Ukrainian port of Odesa, news agencies cited the Defence Ministry as saying yesterday.

It banned the anchoring of vessels in areas that are unprotected by air defences in two ports along a key trading route for grains in the Azov Sea, a government decree showed.

The decree affects ships in the port of Azov in the Azov Sea and the port of Kavkaz in the Kerch Strait, reports Reuters.

Shipping in the Sea of Azov, the route for a quarter of Russia’s grains exports, has been restricted since last Friday amid Ukrainian attacks on tankers and other commercial vessels in the area.

The United Nations said yesterday that civilian casualties in the war raging between Russia and Ukraine rose 37 percent in the first half of this year.

Rescuers work at the site of an apartment building hit by a Russian air strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, yesterday. At least three people were killed and more than a dozen injured in the strike. PHoto: REUTERS

“We documented 1,396 civilians killed (and) 7,978 injured... that amounts to a 37 percent increase from the same period in the previous year,” Danielle Bell, head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, told reporters in Geneva.

Russia and Ukraine -- which deny targeting civilians -- have stepped up daily strikes on each other in recent months, as US-led talks on ending the nearly four-and-a-half year conflict remain stalled, reports AFP.

The UN rights office decried multiple attacks in recent days causing civilian casualties across Ukraine and in Russia. “Civilians and civilian infrastructure are strictly protected under international humanitarian law, and any such deliberate attack is a war crime,” spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told reporters.

A strike on a ship in the Black Sea carrying propane to the Ukrainian port of Reni wounded three seafarers and forced the crew’s evacuation, Romania’s president said yesterday.

Separately, India summoned Russia’s top envoy in New Delhi yesterday to protest against an attack on a cargo ship leaving Ukraine’s port of Odesa that killed four Indian nationals.