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Russia on has launched a deadly missile attack on the city of Kramatorsk as Ukrainian and Russian forces remained locked in a grinding battle for the control of Bakhmut farther east in the Donetsk region.

A Russian missile hit an apartment building in Kramatorsk, killing one civilian and wounding three others, the Prosecutor-General’s Office reported on March 14. It added that six high-rise apartment buildings were damaged in the attack and that search-and-rescue operations were still under way.

Kramatorsk, some 50 kilometers from Bakhmut, was the scene last year of one of the worst attacks on civilians in the war, when 58 civilians were killed in April by a missile containing cluster bomblets, in what Human Rights Watch has said amounted to a war crime.

The Ukrainian military said in its daily report on March 14 that despite sustaining “significant” losses, Russian forces continued to mount waves of attacks on Bakhmut and other several locations around the city in the eastern region of Donetsk.

“Over the past day, our forces repelled 102 enemy attacks…In Bakhmut, the enemy has not paused in its attempts to capture the city,” the General Staff of Ukraine’s military said, adding that fierce battles were also taking palce in Lyman, Avdiyivka, Maryinka, and Shakhtarsk.

Live Briefing: Russia’s Invasion Of Ukraine

RFE/RL’s Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia’s full-scale invasion, Kyiv’s counteroffensives, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL’s coverage of the war, click here.

Amid the monthslong fighting for the mining city, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine’s future is being decided on the eastern front and vowed that Kyiv’s forces will prevail.

“It is very tough in the east, very painful,” Zelenskiy told Ukrainians in his regular nightly video address.

“We must destroy the enemy’s military power — and we will destroy it. In Belohoryivka, Maryinka, Avdiyivka, Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Kamyianka, and all the other places where it is now being decided what our future will be. Where our future, of all Ukrainians, is being fought for,” Zelenskiy said, adding that he is grateful to every fighter who is risking his life in these battles.

“I thank everyone who is defending their positions and fighting for Ukraine and their brothers,” he said. “Thank you to everyone who never lets down those who are next to them on the line.”

Ukrainian forces have been mounting robust resistance on the west side of Bakhmut against repeated breakthrough attempts by Russian mercenary fighters from the Wagner private firm.

On March 14, the Kremlin said Moscow’s goals in Ukraine can only be achieved by military force.

“We have to achieve our goals. Right now this is only possible by military means due to the current position of the Kyiv regime,” Russian state news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.

Meanwhile, Reuters and The New York Times said sources told them that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is planning to seek the arrest of Russian officials for forcibly deporting children from Ukraine and targeting the country’s civilian infrastructure.

The ICC did not immediately comment on the report. If confirmed, they would be the first international war crimes cases arising from Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

On the diplomatic front, Turkey said on March 14 that talks are continuing over the extension of an agreement that allows Ukraine to export grains on the Black Sea.

The pact brokered between Moscow and Kyiv in July by Turkey and the United Nations is scheduled to end on March 18 and can be extended only with Russia’s agreement.

The Turkish Defense Ministry cited Russia as agreeing to back a 60-day extension to the deal, but Ukraine said the agreement only allows for a 120-day extension.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP