Zelensky visits wounded troops as Russia strikes port cities

April 3 (UPI) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday visited wounded troops as Russia conducted missile strikes on the Black Sea port cities Odesa and Mykolaiv.

"Our border guards are courageously and selflessly defending the borders of our state," Zelensky said in a Facebook post with images of soldiers wounded in battles in Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Gostomel. "Get well soon, guys!"

Lyudmila Denisova, the human rights commissioner in Ukraine, said in a statement to Telegram on Sunday that Russian forces had conducted airstrikes on critical infrastructure in Odesa and Mykolaiv. She added that Russian forces on Saturday had destroyed an oil refinery in Kremenchuk.

"Yesterday, the occupiers fired heavily at the Kremenchuk refinery and the surrounding fuel and lubricants depots. The company's infrastructure was destroyed. It is not working. Several people were injured and burnt," she said.

The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed the rocket attacks in a video message posted to Facebook and said fuel storage facilities used to supply Ukrainian troops had been destroyed as well as an aircraft parking lot at a nearby airfield.

"The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continued to strike at the military infrastructure of Ukraine," the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Vitaliy Kim, the governor of the Mykolaiv region, said in a statement to Telegram that 14 people were taken to a local hospital after shelling in the city, one of whom died from their injuries.

Denisova added in her statement that the number of people killed in a rocket attack on a regional administration building in Mykolaiv on Tuesday has increased to 38 victims.

The airstrikes came after Ukraine's Defense Ministry accused Russian forces of executing civilians in the Ukrainian city of Bucha, sparking international outrage.

"The Ukrainian city of Bucha was in the hands of animals for several weeks," the Defense Ministry said. "Local civilians were being executed arbitrarily, some with hands tied behind their backs, their bodies scattered in the streets of the city."

Denisova alleged Sunday that Russian forces had also opened fire on civilians in Kakhovka who gathered to protest the invasion. Protesters had also gathered in the occupied city of Kherson.

"During the peaceful action in Kakhovka, the Russian military opened fire on the townspeople, who came out to say 'no' to the invaders," Denisova said. "Grenade explosions and machine guns can be heard in the city. There are detainees and wounded."

The Russian Defense Ministry denied killing Bucha civilians in a statement to Telegram on Sunday and called images and videos showing dead bodies in the streets "fake."

"Given that the troops left the city on March 30, where were these footage for four days?" the Russian Defense Ministry said. "The bodies in the video seem to have been deliberately laid out in order to create a more dramatic picture."