Russia-Ukraine updates: Russian missiles hit close to nuclear reactors: IAEA director

The city of Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine is purportedly under total control of Russian forces and the Kremlin-backed Luhansk People's Militia, the Russian Ministry of Defense said Sunday.

Russian Army Gen. Sergei Shoigu said in a statement that Lysychansk and a number of settlements in the Luhansk oblast, or province, of the Dobas region -- including the largest settlements of Belogorovka, Novodruzhesk, Maloryazantsevo and Belaya -- are under control of Russia after weeks of heavy fighting.

Shoigu said that over the past day, Russia and the Luhansk People's Militia have taken control of more than 70 square miles of the Luhansk province.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that Ukraine has not confirmed that the Russian's have seized Lysychansk.

"We cannot definitively say that Lysychansk is under the control of the Russian Federation" Zelensky said in a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Sunday.

However, Zelensky acknowledge that battle for Lysychansk and other areas of the Luhansk region has been tough for Ukrainian forces.

"It's really the most difficult situation, the most dangerous, and we don't have an advantage there, and it's true, it's our weak spot," Zelenskyy said.

Russian missiles struck residential areas near the key port city of Odesa in southern Ukraine early Friday, killing at least 21 people and wounding 39 others, Ukrainian authorities said.

Russian bombers fired a trio of X-22 missiles that hit a nine-story apartment building and two recreational areas in the small coastal town of Serhiivka, located about 31 miles southwest of Odesa, according to a statement from the Security Service of Ukraine, which noted that rescue operations were underway.

Many victims were in the apartment building, where the entire entrance was "completely destroyed," authorities said.

One of the wounded children was a baby who was in a coma after being pulled from the charred rubble, according to authorities.

"This was a targeted Russian missile attack -- Russian terror against our cities, villages, our people," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

The pre-dawn attacks followed the withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine's Snake Island on Thursday, a move that was expected to potentially ease the threat to nearby Odesa, home to Ukraine's biggest seaport and one of the largest ports in the Black Sea basin.

"Occupants can't win on the battlefield, so resort to the vile murder of civilians," Ivan Bakanov, chairman of the Security Service of Ukraine, said in a statement Friday. "After the enemy was kicked out of Snake Island, he decided to respond with a cynical shelling of civilian objects."

Ukraine on Friday submitted a memorandum to the International Court of Justice on Russian aggression.

"We prove that Russia violated the Genocide Convention by justifying its aggression with a false pretext of a 'genocide' that never was," tweeted Dmytro Kuleba, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

He called it a "critical step to hold Russia accountable and make Russia pay for the harm it has inflicted."

Close to 90% of refugees who fled Ukraine since the start of Russia's invasion plan to return home at some point, according to a recent poll by the Rating group.

Only 8% of refugees said they would never return to Ukraine, while 15% are prepared to go back as soon as possible, the poll showed.

Around half of those displaced only plan on returning when the war is over. Close to a third of people who lost their jobs because of the war are still not able to find new employment, the data revealed.

-ABC News' Edward Szekeres, Max Uzol, Fidel Pavlenko and Yuriy Zaliznyak