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Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Russia intensified its attacks on Kherson, Ukraine, killing four people overnight into Monday as troops damaged train infrastructure. Ukrainian officials said Russia fired on the Kherson region 42 times, over five areas, killing three people on Sunday and another overnight.
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The damage to Kherson, which prevented trains from Kyiv and Lviv from reaching Kherson, highlighted a series of attacks as the war approaches its one-year anniversary.
Ukrainian regional officials said the shelling damaged residential and farm buildings in Beryslav. Two people died when a mine exploded near the village of Novoraisk. A movie theater, a concert hall and warehouse facilities in Kherson were also hit.
Russia used multiple-launch rocket systems, tanks and mortars in the attacks.
Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group said Sunday they took control of Krasna Hora, a village just north of the critical eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region. Ukraine had held onto Bakhmut amid weeks of intense bombing.
The British Defense Ministry said Russia has continued to construct defensive fortifications in Zaporizhzhia and Luhansk oblasts while building up troops there.
"A major Ukrainian breakthrough in Zaporizhzhia would seriously challenge the viability of Russia's 'land bridge' linking Russia's Rostov region and Crimea; Ukrainian success in Luhansk would further undermine Russia's professed war aim of 'liberating' the Donbas," the ministry said on Twitter.
The United States, in the meantime, has told its citizens to leave Russia immediately and discouraged travel there for fear of "harassment" and being singled out for detention by the Russian government.
The State Department said its embassy would have "limited ability to assist U.S. citizens in Russia and the possibility of terrorism."
