There are more than 140,000 residential buildings damaged by the invasion

WASHINGTON – As US investment in the war effort in Ukraine rose to over $ 8 billion on Monday, devastation within Ukraine continues to increase.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said at least Tuesday 140,000 residential buildings have been destroyed or damaged since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February, leaving more than 3.5 million of the homeless.

While the arrival of long-range Western weapons has helped the Ukrainians stabilize their defensive positions in the east and begin organizing a counter-offensive in the south, the Russians continue to hit military and civilian targets across the country.

On Tuesday, the Ukrainian army said it had rejected several attempts by the Russians to advance on the eastern city of Bakhmut in the region of Donetsk.

As fighting intensified in southern Ukraine, Russian forces did so Locked down largely all traffic in and out of the territories they occupy.

But civilians are still trying to find a way to escape and at least two died as they fled the Kherson region in a red minibus, Ukrainian officials said Tuesday.

Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the military administration in the nearby Kryvyi Rih area, said Russian soldiers fired at the vehicle. “point blank”killing two people and injuring five others.

The wounded managed to reach the territory controlled by Ukraine and are now in the hospital in Kryvyi Rih, where two remain in a state critic.

While civilians in the occupied southern regions struggle to find safe escape routes, President Volodymyr Zelensky also asked about 200,000 civilians to evacuate from eastern Ukraine, as Russian bombings destroyed almost all essential infrastructure to provide heat and electricity.

An emergency evacuation train carrying “women, children, the elderly, many people with reduced mobility” headed west on Tuesday morning, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a statement.

He said the plan was to help people flee until the colder months begin, at which point officials say the Kiev government can do little for them.

Despite widespread suffering, Zelensky said it continued I commit shown by Ukraine’s Western allies allowed them to fight against the Russians.

“The power of the democratic world feels good on Ukraine’s battlefield this week,” he said in his evening address to the nation.

The latest U.S. arms transfer revealed Monday, it’s worth it 550 million dollarsIt will include ammunition for HIMARS rocket launchers that were used to destroy Russian command posts and ammunition depots, as well as 155mm howitzers already used by Ukrainian troops, said John F. Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council.

President Joe Biden authorized the latest package as the first food merchant ship left the Ukrainian port city of Odessa after months of Russian blockade, in accordance with an agreement with Moscow.

The White House called the Kremlin continue to honor the pact to alleviate a growing food crisis around the world.

“Russia obviously armed the food,” Kirby said.

“We urge Russia to honor its commitments under this new agreement.”

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