Ukraine has regained control towns and defensive positions up to 35 kilometers (22 miles) east of Kyiv, helped by Russian forces falling back on overextended supply lines, Britain's defense ministry said on Friday.
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Rescuers were searching for survivors among the debris on Friday after two missiles hit a Ukrainian military unit on the outskirts of the city of Dnipro, causing "serious destruction," regional governor Valentyn Reznychenko said on social media.
The strikes destroyed buildings and set off two fires, it said, while the number of those killed and wounded was still being established.
Dnipro is west of the regions along the Russian border that have been controlled by Russian-backed separatists since 2014.
Elsewhere, Ukraine hopes to open a safe corridor to evacuate civilians from the besieged city of Mariupol on Friday in private vehicles, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy spoke of hope and determination in his nighttime video address to the nation late Thursday.
"It is already night. But we are working," he said in a quiet voice. "The country must move toward peace, move forward. With every day of our defense, we are getting closer to the peace that we need so much. We are getting closer to victory. … We can't stop even for a minute. For every minute determines our fate, our future, whether we will live."
He reported on his conversations that day with leaders of NATO and European Union countries gathered in Brussels, and their promises of even more sanctions on Russia.
"We need to look for peace," he said. "Russia also needs to look for peace."
Early Friday, Zelenskyy said in a Facebook video that he had spoken again with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett the previous day.
On Thursday, Ukraine accused Moscow of forcibly removing hundreds of thousands of civilians from shattered Ukrainian cities to Russia to pressure Kyiv to give up.
Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraine's ombudsperson, said 402,000 people, including 84,000 children, had been taken against their will into Russia, where some may be used as "hostages" to pressure Kyiv to surrender.
The Kremlin gave nearly identical numbers for those who have been relocated, but said they wanted to go to Russia. Ukraine's rebel-controlled eastern regions are predominantly Russian-speaking, and many people there have supported close ties to Moscow.
With the war headed into a second month, the two sides traded heavy blows in what has become a devastating war of attrition. Ukraine's navy said it sank a large Russian landing ship near the port city of Berdyansk that had been used to bring in armored vehicles. Russia claimed to have taken the eastern town of Izyum after fierce fighting.
Russian ex-president and deputy head of security council Dmitry Medvedev said Friday it was "foolish" to believe that Western sanctions against Russian businesses could have any effect on the Moscow government.
The sanctions will only consolidate the Russian society and not cause popular discontent with the authorities, Medvedev told Russia's RIA news agency in an interview.
The West has imposed an array of sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, but one month into the war, the Kremlin says it will continue the assault until it accomplishes its goals of Ukraine's "demilitarization and denazification."
Some of the sanctions have specifically targeted billionaire businessmen believed to be close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"Let us ask ourselves: can any of these major businessmen have even the tiniest quantum of influence of the position of the country's leadership?" Medvedev said.
"I openly tell you: no, no way."
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