Russian airstrikes struck a hospital and a prison early this morning, killing at least 25 people throughout Ukraine.
Reuters reported that the Bilenke penitentiary in the southern Zaporizhzhia district was the scene of the deadliest attack, leaving 16 prisoners dead and over 50 injured.
Five individuals were killed in a separate Russian strike on a humanitarian assistance line in the northeastern Kharkiv region. In the central Dnipropetrovsk region, three people were killed, one of whom was pregnant. There have been reports of another casualty in the area.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia "must be forced to stop the killings and make peace" via "tough" sanctions.
Ukraine's justice ministry stated in a statement Tuesday morning that the dining hall, administrative offices, and quarantine area were destroyed when four glide bombs struck the Bilenke prison soon before midnight.
Over 50 people were hurt, 44 of them needed to be brought to the hospital, according to the report.
The ministry changed the death toll after first reporting that 17 prisoners had been killed. Since detainees retain their rights to life and protection, attacking a prison is a flagrant violation of humanitarian law, said Ukraine's human rights commissioner.
BBC reported that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian soldiers have regularly targeted the front-line region of Zaporizhzhia.
Although Moscow does not have complete control over any of the four southeastern Ukrainian regions it claims to have annexed since 2022, and Zaporizhzhia is one of them.
Five people were murdered in the Kharkiv region's Novoplatonivka hamlet on Tuesday morning in a separate Russian missile strike, according to local authorities.
According to Reuters, regional police director Petro Tokar told Ukraine's Suspilne TV channel that the locals had congregated in front of a local store to receive humanitarian goods.
Later, images of bodies lying close to a wrecked store were made public by Ukrainian officials. Three people were killed in another Russian missile strike that struck a hospital in Kamianske, Dnipropetrovsk district.
According to President Zelensky, one of the victims there was Diana, a pregnant woman who was 23 years old.
In a statement, he accused Russia of killing Ukrainians when a ceasefire "could have long been in place".
US President Donald Trump issued a stark ultimatum to Moscow on Monday, warning that Russia had "about 10 or 12 days" to agree to a ceasefire or face sweeping sanctions. Speaking during a visit to Scotland, Trump told reporters he would "announce it probably tonight or tomorrow," adding, "there's no reason to wait, if you know what the answer is".
Zelensky praised Trump's "very important words" and said that Russia was "wasting the world's time".
Trump issued a warning earlier in July that the Kremlin must seek a truce with Kyiv within 50 days or face economic sanctions, but the threat hasn't stopped Russia's volley of strikes. Russia claimed that its troops were advancing farther into Ukrainian territory when the barrage of attacks occurred.
Weeks after asserting control of their first village in the Dnipropetrovsk area, Moscow announced over the weekend that its soldiers had taken Maliivka. Russia's assertions have been denied by Ukraine.
Meanwhile, officials in Russia said that Ukraine had set fire to a goods train and killed one person in their automobile in the town of Salsk after launching dozens of drones in the southern Rostov region overnight.
According to reports, in the Belgorod border region, another person was reported dead in their vehicle, and their spouse was injured.
