Four people have been killed in a Russian attack on a humanitarian aid distribution point in the southeast Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia, officials say.
Ukraine's General Prosecutor's office says it has opened a criminal case into war crimes after the attack on the town of Orikhiv, which it said was carried out on Sunday afternoon.
Regional governor Yuriy Malashko said a guided aviation bomb was used in the attack on a school building being used as an aid distribution point.
Malashko said on the Telegram messaging app that three women and a man, all in their 40s, were killed. The General Prosecutor's office said 13 were wounded.
Images from the scene posted by the interior ministry online showed rubble and debris scattered across a courtyard and street.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports. Russia, which began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, denies deliberately targeting civilians.
Ukraine's military is conducting a counteroffensive to try to retake Russian-occupied territory in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Giving an early update on Monday from around the frontlines, the Ukrainian military said its troops have so far retaken 169 square kilometres on the southern front and 24 sq km around the eastern city of Bakhmut since its counteroffensive began last month.
Russian accounts said heavy fighting gripped areas outside Bakhmut, the city captured by Russian mercenary Wagner forces in May after a months-long siege.
Pro-Moscow Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said one of his units was deployed in the area.
Ukraine's deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, wrote on the Telegram messaging app that heavy fighting raged in two areas of the southeast.
"We are consolidating our gains in those areas," she wrote.
Russian troops, she said, were defending Bakhmut, while Ukrainian forces had registered "a certain advance" on the city's southern flank.
Zelenskiy was interviewed on US television network ABC ahead of this week's NATO summit in Lithuania, where Kyiv hopes to receive firm indications about both future membership in the Western defence alliance and guarantees for its security.
Zelenskiy acknowledged that advances were slower than what he and his generals wanted, but said Ukrainian forces held the initiative.
"All of us, we want to do it faster because every day means new losses of Ukrainians. We are advancing. We are not stuck," he said, noting that the military had overcome a "kind of stagnation" in previous months.
"We would all love to see the counteroffensive accomplished in a shorter period of time. But there is reality. Today, the initiative is on our side."
Much attention in recent days has focused on the village of Klishchiivka, lying on heights to the south of Bakhmut.
Chechen leader Kadyrov, writing on Telegram, said his"Akhmat unit was "in the difficult Bakhmut sector". He posted a video of a commander atop an armoured vehicle near Klishchiivka.
Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces had repelled Ukrainian advances near Bakhmut, with fighting made difficult "not only by the daily intensity of fire and battle, but also by topography. The line of contact runs between two hills."
Ukrainian military analyst Denys Popovych said Ukrainian forces had taken "important positions near Klishchiivka.
"This will allow for artillery control of Klishchiivka itself and of parts of Bakhmut and supply routes," he told Ukraine's NV Radio. "Just as Wagner surrounded the city, so will we."
