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

Shelling from both Russian and Ukrainian forces caused damage to the landscape and destroyed structures throughout the Donbas region on Tuesday and Wednesday, local officials said.

Russian strikes reportedly targeted the eastern town of Bakhmut, killing one person and wounding 5 others, the local governor said. Explosions were heard in several nearby towns too, with one missile falling near a kindergarten.

Shelling also continued in Izyum, Mykolayiv and Kharkiv on Tuesday. Russian troops reportedly conducted unsuccessful attacks north of Slovyansk and the town of Siversk on Tuesday, despite repeated rhetoric of an “operational pause” that Russia allegedly maintains, the Institute for the Study of War said in its latest report.

Russian forces continue to bomb critical areas in preparation for future ground offensive, with air and artillery strikes reported along the majority of the frontline, the experts added.

Ukrainian forces on Tuesday responded to the Russian attacks and claimed to have destroyed six Russian military facilities on occupied Ukrainian territories. Ukrainian officials claimed to have destroyed several ammunition depots, as well as a larger military unit.

Russian media reported on Tuesday that Ukrainian troops launched a “massive attack” on an air defense unit in the Luhansk region.

Ukrainian military officials also claimed to have killed at least 30 Russian troops on Tuesday, along with destroying a howitzer and a multiple rocket launcher, among other weaponry.

But the U.K. Defense Ministry in its latest intelligence update said it still expects Russian forces to “focus on taking several small towns during the coming weeks” in the Donbas region.

These towns are on the approaches to the larger cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk that likely remain the principal objectives for this phase of the Russian military operation, the ministry said.

-ABC News' Edward Szekeres, Max Uzol, Yulia Drozd and Yuriy Zaliznyak

The United States transferred $1.7 billion to Ukraine’s government Tuesday, the Treasury Department announced.

It’s the second tranche of money the Treasury transferred to Ukraine’s government as part of $7.5 billion approved for this purpose in the $40 billion Ukraine aid package Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed into law in May.

It’ll go, in part, to helping Ukraine’s government provide "essential health care services" and health care workers' salaries, the Treasury Department said.

The U.S. transferred the first tranche, $1.3 billion, to Ukraine’s government two weeks ago.

-ABC News Benjamin Gittleson

Ukrainian forces hit and likely destroyed a Russian ammunition depot in the Russian-occupied town of Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region on Monday night, local officials said.

The strike resulted in a massive blast, videos of which soon circulated online. According to local reports, more than 40 trucks filled with gasoline were destroyed. Russian media didn't verify the claims, saying instead that pro-Russian forces had destroyed a series of saltpeter warehouses.

“People's windows are blown out, but they are still happy ... because this means that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are close," Sergey Khlan, from the Kherson Regional Military Administration, said in the aftermath of the attack.

Monday's strike marked at least the fourth time Ukrainian forces destroyed ammunition depots in Nova Kakhovka, local media reported.

-ABC News' Edward Szekeres, Tatiana Rymarenko, Max Uzol and Yulia Drozd

Thirty-three people are confirmed dead from a missile strike on an apartment complex in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

The complex was reduced to rubble from multiple rocket strikes on Sunday.

Emergency workers said others might still be alive and trapped under the debris.