Multiple explosions rock Kharkiv in Eastern Ukraine

A series of explosions rocked the Eastern Ukraine city of Kharkiv early Saturday, sending towering plumes of illuminated smoke in the sky and triggering a series of secondary explosions in the country's second-largest city.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram that the early-morning explosions were the result of missile strikes in the centre of the city.He said that the blasts sparked fires at one of the city's medical institutions and a non-residential building.

The blasts came as Russia concentratesattacksin its increasingly troubled invasion of Ukraine on areas it illegally annexed.

In a rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his conduct of Europe's worst armed conflict since the Second World War, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to human rights organizations in his country and Ukraine, and to an activist jailed in Russia's ally Belarus.

Berit Reiss-Andersen, the committee's chair, said the honour went to "three outstanding champions of human rights, democracy and peaceful coexistence."

Putin this week claimed four regions of Ukraine as Russian territory the Zaporizhzhiaand Kherson regions in the south and the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east.

On Friday,Russia's Defence Ministry reported that its forces had repelled Ukrainian advances near thecity of Lyman, which Ukraine recently liberated, and retaken three villages elsewhere in Donetsk.

The ministry also claimed that Russian forces had prevented Ukrainian troops from advancing on several villages in Kherson.

Meanwhile,Ukrainian authorities inZaporizhzhia said the death toll from the strikes on apartment buildings rose to 14 on Friday, while 12 people wounded in the bombardment remained hospitalized.

Missiles also struck the city overnight, wounding one person, Zaporizhzhia Gov. Oleksandr Starukh said. Russia also used Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones there for the first time and damaged two infrastructure facilities, he said.

With it's army losing ground to a Ukrainian counter-offensive in the south and east, Russia has deployed more explosives-packed drones that are cheaper and less sophisticated than missiles but still can damage ground targets.

WATCH |CBC Newson the ground in Zaporizhzhia:

Russian missile strikes kill 3 civilians in southern Ukraine

2 years ago

Duration 2:36

WARNING: Graphic imagery. CBC News is on the ground in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, speaking to families desperate to know the fate of their loved ones after Russian missile attacks struck the city just a day after Putin declared the region part of Russia.

The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War says Russia's use of the drones was unlikely to affect the course of the war.

"They have used many drones against civilian targets in rear areas, likely hoping to generate nonlinear effects through terror. Such efforts are not succeeding," analysts at the think tank wrote.

Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address Friday that this week alone, his military has recaptured 776 square kilometresof territory in the east and 29 settlements, including six inLuhansk. In total, Ukrainian forces have liberated 2,434 square kilometresof land and 96 settlements since the beginning of its counteroffensive, he said.

Mass graves found

The trail of Russia's devastation and death from areas where its troops retreated became clearer Friday. A report by Ukrainian First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Yevhen Yenin revealed that 530 bodies of civilians have been found in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region since Sept. 7.

The residents killed during the Russian occupation included 257 men, 225 women and 19 children, with 29 people unidentified, Yenin said. Most of the bodies were found in a previously disclosed mass grave in the city of Izium.

According to Yenin, the recovered bodies bore signs of gunshots, explosions and torture. Some people had ropes around their necks, hands tied behind their back, bullet wounds to their knees and broken ribs.

Authorities have identified 22 torture sites in parts of the Kharkiv region that Ukrainian forces recently liberated, said Serhiy Bolvinov, a regional police official.

In recently recaptured Lyman, workers found 200 individual graves and a mass grave with an unknown number of victims, Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko reported on Telegram. In Sviatohirsk, 24 kilometresfrom Lyman, 21 bodies of civilians were reburied.

Demoralized troops

Russian military equipment and weapons, meanwhile, is getting into Ukrainian hands. Britain's Ministry of Defence said Friday that Ukrainian forces have captured at least 440 tanks and about 650 armoured vehicles since the Russian invasion started Feb. 24.

"The failure of Russian crews to destroy intact equipment before withdrawing or surrendering highlights their poor state of training and low levels of battle discipline," the British ministry said. "With Russian formations under severe strain in several sectors and increasingly demoralized troops, Russia will likely continue to lose heavy weaponry."

Putin ordered a partial mobilization of Russian army reservists last month to reinforce manpower on the front lines in Ukraine. Mistakes have dogged the military call-up, however, and tens of thousands of men have fled Russia, unwilling to fight Putin's war.

That has left Russia desperate for troop reinforcements. The Ukrainian military said Friday that 500 former criminals have been mobilized to reinforce Russian ranks in Donetsk, where Ukrainian forces have retaken territory. Law enforcement officers are commanding the new units, the military said.

Russia's state news agency Tass reported Friday that a court in the Russian city of Penza had dismissed the first case against a Russian man called up to serve but who refused. The 32-year-old man's lawyers had argued that the law under which he was charged applies only to conscription evaders, not those subject to the partial mobilization.

In another sign of trouble, reports have surfaced of poor training and few supplies for the new Russian troops. At least two Russian cities St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod announced Friday they were cancelling their Russian New Year's and Christmas celebrations and redirecting that money to buy supplies for Russian troops.

Under increasing pressure from his own supporters as well as critics, Putin continued to reshuffle his military's leadership, replacing the commander of Russia's eastern military district.