Seventy killed in attack on Ukrainian base

More than 70 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in Russian shelling of a military base in Ochtirka, about 300 kilometers east of Kiev, according to Ukrainian reports. Numbers of casualties cannot be verified in battle.

An advance of Russian troops around and in Kherson is reported from the south of Ukraine. This port on the river Djnepr and on the Black Sea is said to have been surrounded, Russian soldiers are said to have set up checkpoints around the city, according to Mayor Igor Kolichayev. Russian infantrymen would enter the city from the east.