Ukraine claims Russian shells and missile strikes at number of cities kill at least three

Ukrainian officials claimed that Russian forces shelled and fired missiles at a number of cities in eastern Ukraine Saturday night (Feb 17), killing at least three people.

As per Ukraine, two cities close to the front line in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region - Kramatorsk and Slovyansk - were targeted.

Donetsk Governor Vadim Filashkin said that Russia had fired three rockets at Kramatorsk, which killed at least two people.

"Rescuers pulled the body of a woman born in 1977 from the rubble," he wrote on social media, adding later that the body of a 23-year-old man had also been found.

Filashkin added that one more person was feared buried under the piles of broken concrete and debris.

A report by the news agency AFP mentioned that dozens of rescue personnel were on the site of the strike.

The emergency services teams were working by lamplight and using construction tools to move the wreckage.

At one point, they turned off floodlights powered by loud generators to look for signs of life beneath debris near a two-metre crater.

Meanwhile, Russian shells hit a school in the nearby town of Slovyansk, with rescuer teams searching for at least one person trapped underneath piles of debris.

The governor of the Kharkiv region said that in the town of Kupiansk, which is further north, one person was killed when Russian shells struck a two-storey house.

The attacks arebelieved to have taken place in places where Russian attacks are common, but the news agencies have not independently verified any of the reports.

Watch:Former US ambassador to NATO speaks to WION

China denies selling 'lethal weapons' to Russia

The West has often accused China of selling weapons to Russia, which are being used while targeting Ukraine, but Beijing has denied such claims. The same was reiterated as China's foreign minister told his Ukrainian counterpart that Beijing does not sell lethal weapons to Russia for its war against Ukraine.

According to a foreign ministry readout, Wang Yi told Dmytro Kuleba during a meeting on the sidelines of a major security conference in Munich on Saturday that China "does not take any advantage of the situation, and does not sell lethal weapons to conflict areas or parties to the conflict".

Disclaimer: A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on Ukraine-Russia war on the ground and online. While WION takes utmost care to accurately and responsibly report ongoing developments, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos

(With inputs from agencies)