NEAR KREMINNA(London Post with Reuters) – Russian forces attacked northern and southern stretches of the front in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region on Friday, pressing on with their offensive despite assertions from Kyiv that Moscow’s assault was flagging near the city of Bakhmut.
Ukrainian military reports described heavy fighting in the northern sector along a stretch of front running from Lyman to Kupiansk, as well as in the south at Avdiivka on the outskirts of the Russian-held city of Donetsk.
On Thursday, the commander of Ukrainian ground forces said Russia’s assault on Bakhmut, a small city that has been the focus of the biggest battle of the war, appeared to be losing steam and Kyiv could go on the offensive “very soon”.
For now, Ukrainian forces are still focused on preventing the Russians from advancing along more than 300 km (185 miles) of Donbas front, from Kupiansk in the north to Vuhledar in the south.
Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesperson for the East command responsible for the front line further north, said Russia’s main focus lately had been on the stretch from Kupiansk to Lyman, territory recaptured by Ukrainian forces last year. Both said the Russians would bolster their forces after heavy casualties. There was no comparable information about the fighting in the area from the Russian side, which has long claimed heavy Ukrainian casualties.
Instead, Ukrainian forces dug in Bakhmut itself. Bakhmut likely intended to evacuate the city weeks earlier, with some Western military experts calling the strategy risky as troops would need to be saved for counterattacks. There is
The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Friday that about 10,000 Ukrainian civilians, including many elderly and disabled, are clinging to their presence in the horrific conditions of Bakhmut and nearby settlements.
ICRC’s Umar Khan said at a press conference via video link from Ukraine’s Dnipro, “The civilians stranded there are living in extremely dire conditions, under heavy shelling in their [underground] shelters. I spend most of my day in,” he said. “All you see is people being pushed to the limits of existence and survival and resilience.”
In her Kostiantynivka, west of Bakhmut, at least three of her women were killed when Russian missiles hit shelters that provided warm shelter to civilians, local officials said. Photos released by emergency services showed the building destroyed. The mattress was protruding from the rubble. There was no immediate Russian reaction to the report.
In northern Sumy Oblast, administration buildings, school buildings and houses were damaged by Russian artillery shelling, killing two civilians, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office. Russia said its forces destroyed a hangar housing Ukrainian drones in the southern Odessa region.
Russia said he invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and that Ukraine’s ties to the West pose a security threat. Since then, tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians and soldiers have been killed on both sides. Kiev and the West call the war a futile attack to conquer an independent country.
Hardline Kremlin official Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday that Moscow demanded a demilitarized zone around allegedly annexed Ukrainian territory. Otherwise you will be fighting deep inside Ukraine.
“There is nothing that can be excluded here. If you have to go to Kiev, you have to go to Kiev, and if you have to go to Lviv, you have to go to Lviv to destroy this infection,” he said. He said.
