Seven Killed in Russian Missile Attack on Odesa and Kharkiv Regions on Wednesday

Missiles hit two regions in Ukraine on Wednesday killing seven people, local authorities said, while a governor in Russia said a drone strike killed three people in a village close to the border.

In Ukraine's Odesa region, Russian missiles "fired in the evening" killed four people, including a girl of 10, and injured 15 more, said Governor Oleg Kiper on the Telegram messaging app.He added that one of the injured had lost both legs and was in critical condition.

A few hours earlier, two women and a child were killed in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine, the interior ministry said.

Kharkiv region's governor Oleg Synegubov posted photos to Telegram of rescuers clearing up rubble and black smoke billowing from buildings.

The strike hit the village of Lyptsi, some 10 kilometres (six miles) from the Russian border, authorities said.

Ukraine's energy ministry said two facilities in the south had been targeted in strikes during the night, causing power outages in two regions.

Controversial bill

Ukrainian lawmakers sparked anger on Wednesday by scrapping a clause in a draft law that would have allowed soldiers having spent long periods fighting on the front lines a chance to return home.

With Ukraine's army outnumbered by Russia on the battlefield, military leaders pressured politicians to ditch a draft amendment that would have given soldiers serving for more than 36 months the possibility of being discharged.

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Austin said he had "not seen significant reporting" of North Korean troops being "actively engaged in combat" to date.

"The offensive continues along the entire front line. And currently, it is impossible to weaken the defence forces," Dmytro Lazutkin, a spokesperson for Ukraine's defence ministry said Wednesday on state television.

"We cannot make hasty decisions now," he said, explaining the military's opposition to the provision.

'A lasting peace' 

Switzerland said Wednesday it would organise a high-level peace conference for Ukraine in mid-June, but without Russia, which promptly slammed the event as a US-orchestrated plot.

Ukraine and up to 100 countries would attend the conference at the luxury Burgenstock resort near the central city of Lucerne on June 15-16, which Swiss President Viola Amherd said she would host.

"This is a first step in a process towards a lasting peace," she told reporters in Bern.

Amherd acknowledged that "we will not sign a peace plan at this conference" but "we hope to start the process."