Three people were killed on August 22 by Russian shelling of several villages in Ukraine's Donetsk region, and dozens of buildings, including private houses, were damaged in Kryviy Rih by an Iskander missile attack, Ukrainian military officials said.
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The reports of deaths and destruction came as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy returned home from visits to four European countries, saying “Ukraine became stronger," and as a White House official said the United States does not think the conflict has become a stalemate.
The Donetsk regional military administration said the three people who died were killed by artillery shelling of the village of Torske. Two people were wounded.
The Iskander missile struck Kryviy Rih around 5:30 a.m. local time on August 22, said Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the Kryviy Rih Defense Council. One injury was reported in the southeastern city.
"According to the detailed information, as a result of the rocket attack, 15 commercial buildings were damaged [and] windows in 24 multistory buildings were partially broken,” Vilkul said, adding that schools, businesses, and transport infrastructure were also damaged.
The strike cut electricity to more than 45,000 subscribers, and several hospitals and the water system had to immediately switch to generators. Electricity was restored before noon, he said.
Zelenskiy issued a video message summarizing his visits to Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Greece over the last several days, saying he returned to Ukraine with "new political support, new agreements."
His meetings in Athens with leaders of the western Balkans produced a declaration signed by 11 countries in support of the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
"Good conversation on respect for the UN Charter and the inviolability of borders. On our nations’ shared future in the common European home. On developing our relations, that is in our mutual interest," Zelenskiy said in a post on the X social media platform, formerly known as Twitter.
He also had "an open, honest, and fruitful meeting" with Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic on the sidelines of the summit. Serbia, a traditional ally of Russia, has bucked EU pressure to join Western sanctions to punish Moscow for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian president noted the pledges made during his visits advanced Ukraine's wish for F-16 fighter jets and pilot training on the warplanes, and said there will be additional armored vehicles and air defense equipment. Zelenskiy said on August 21 that Ukraine would receive 42 F-16s after Denmark and the Netherlands said they would provide them. The jets from Denmark could be delivered around the end of the year.
Zelenskiy said at almost all his meetings he and fellow European leaders discussed Black Sea export routes and "corridors of solidarity" on land being used to ship Ukrainian grain. He and his European counterparts also discussed the Ukrainian economy and European and Euro-Atlantic integration, he said.
The Ukrainian military said earlier on August 22 its forces had liberated the strategic village of Robotyne in the south after two months of fierce fighting.
"Soldiers of the 47th brigade battled their way into Robotyne," Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said.
The 47th Brigade posted a video online showing tearful women greeting its soldiers and said it was organizing the evacuation of civilians from the village.
Robotyne is an important road leading to Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhya region. Melitopol, known as the "gateway to Crimea," was captured by Russian troops in March last year after several days of heavy fighting.
The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) confirmed that Ukrainian troops had achieved "significant tactical successes" in Robotyne on August 20-21.
If Ukrainian forces advance and retake Melitopol, located at the intersection of two important highways and a major railway hub, they could use the city as a springboard to liberate the whole Zaporizhzhya region.
The Ukrainian military and regional officials on August 22 also reported Russian drone and missile strikes on Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhya, and Kupyansk as Russia's Defense Ministry said it had repelled drone attacks on the Moscow and Bryansk regions while temporarily closing three airports in the capital.
In the northern city of Chernihiv, one man was killed by Russian shelling, regional Governor Vyacheslav Chaus said. On August 19, at least seven people, including a child, were killed and 129 were wounded in a Russian missile strike on the city.
WATCH: Residents of the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv gathered at makeshift memorials on August 20 to honor those killed a day earlier in a Russian missile strike. At least seven people died, including 22-year-old Nazar Yushchenko and a 6-year-old girl named Sofia. Her mother, Olha Holynska, explained how she comforted her wounded daughter until the end.
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'Her Hand Was Still Warm': Remembering The Victims Of Deadly Russian Strike On Chernihiv
Russia also struck the southern city of Zaporizhzhya overnight, causing damage but no casualties, the secretary of the Zaporizhzhya City Council, Anatoliy Kurtev, reported early on August 22.
"Overnight, the enemy attacked Zaporizhzhya again. As a consequence of the blast wave, four high-rise buildings sustained damage," Kurtev wrote on Telegram. Russian forces have repeatedly launched attacks on Zaporizhzya.
Russian troops shelled Kupyansk and Vovchansk in the eastern Kharkiv region overnight, Oleh Synyehubov, the region's governor, said on August 22.
"Four residential buildings were damaged and destroyed," Synyehubov said on Telegram, adding that a woman was slightly wounded.
Meanwhile, Russia's Defense Ministry said early on August 22 that four drones were shot down overnight -- two over the Moscow region and two over the Bryansk region, some 400 kilometers southwest of Moscow.
Russian state news agency TASS reported that three Moscow airports -- Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo -- briefly suspended flights, without giving a reason for the suspension.
Moscow airports have suspended flights several times recently due to what authorities said were Ukrainian drone attacks.
The ministry also early on August 22 said that a Russian warplane destroyed what it said was a "Ukrainian reconnaissance boat" that was sailing in the vicinity of Russian gas production facilities in the Black Sea. The claim could not be independently verified.
On the battlefield, heavy fighting has been continuing in the east and south of Ukraine, with the General Staff of the Ukrainian military reporting that a Russian counterattack had been repelled in Bakhmut, the city in the eastern region of Donetsk that was battered by months of heavy fighting before it fell to Russian forces in May.
U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan on August 22 described the battlefield as "very dynamic" in a briefing with reporters.
"There is attacking and defending taking place on both sides at multiple points along a very extended front line," he said. "We are seeing [Ukraine] continue to take territory on a methodical, systematic basis."
Sullivan added that the United States does not think the conflict is a stalemate.
The Russian Air Force late on August 22 scrambled two jets to force two drones to stop their aerial reconnaissance near the Crimean Peninsula.
"On August 22, the flight of two unmanned aerial vehicles MQ-9 Reaper and TB2 Bayraktar carrying out aerial reconnaissance in the area of the Crimean Peninsula was recorded over the Black Sea by means of the airspace control of the Russian Aerospace Forces," the Russian Defense Ministry said.
Russia also said it destroyed two Ukrainian military boats in the Black Sea.
It was not possible for RFE/RL to verify either side's claims from the battlefield.