Ukraine said Wednesday it had assassinated a Russian officer responsible for war crimes, targeting him in a car bomb inside Russia.

Ukrainian drones targeted oil depots in the city of Simferopol and the village of Hvardiiske in Russian-occupied Crimea overnight on Oct. 29, the Crimean Wind Telegram channel reported.

Ukraine has ramped up its strikes on Russian military and energy targets far beyond the front lines in recent months.

Ukrainian forces are struggling to fend off intensifying Russian advances on the eastern city of Pokrovsk, the military and open-source analysts said on Wednesday.

A Russian strike on a children’s hospital in southern Ukraine has wounded at least nine people, authorities have said, shortly after Kyiv targeted Russian energy sites with drones.

The Kremlin efforts to increase the ranks came as Putin has resisted U.S. President Donald Trump's demand for a quick ceasefire and maintained the Kremlin's maximalist demands that include Ukraine's withdrawal from the four regions that Russia has annexed but never fully captured. Kyiv and its Western allies have rejected Putin's demands.

Russian regions are dramatically increasing the amount of money they pay to new military recruits as analysts say “ideological” recruitment campaigns are no longer enough to motivate people to fight in Ukraine.

A British man has been detained by Ukrainian security services and accused of spying for Russia. Prosecutors in Kyiv said the unnamed man had been passing information to Russian intelligence while working as a military instructor.