Fierce fighting erupts in Ukraine’s Donetsk region – Times of India

KYIV: There was intense fighting around two cities between Russian and Ukrainian armies Donetsk Region of Eastern Ukraine, Bakhmut and Soledar, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Said on Sunday.
Fighting has been particularly intense this weekend in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which make up the large industrial Donbass, and the strategically important Kherson province to the south. They constitute three of the four provinces. putin Declared last month as part of Russia, the moves rejected by Ukraine and its Western allies are illegitimate.
Its slow movement through the Bakhmut region has been the target of Russia’s armed forces since the capture of the major industrial cities of Lisichansk and Svyarodonetsk in June and July. Soledar is located just north of Bakhmut.
“The major hot spots in Donbass are Soledar and Bakhmut,” Zelensky said in his video address of the night. “There’s a lot of fighting going on there.”
The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said that Russian forces on Sunday opened fire on Ukrainian posts on several fronts, including targets in the cities of Kharkiv, Donetsk and Kherson regions.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov suggested that the heaviest fighting was taking place north of Bakhmut, adding that Ukrainian forces had repelled Russian advances on the towns of Torske and Spryn in the past 24 hours.
“(The Russians) have decided to proceed through Torske and Spine,” Zhdanov posted online. “The situation in those places is changing regularly. Our command is sending reinforcements, men and artillery there to counter Russian superiority in those areas.”
Russia’s defense ministry said on Sunday that its forces thwarted advance attempts by Ukrainian troops in the Donetsk, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, causing significant damage to it.
Russia also said it was continuing air strikes on military and energy targets in Ukraine using long-range precision-guided weapons.
Ryber, a pro-Russian military channel on Telegram, said Ukrainian armed forces again opened fire on Belgorod, a city in southern Russia that serves as a platform for the Russian military.
Anti-aircraft units repelled most of the attacks, but two explosions occurred near the airport. He said three people were injured.
The head of the Russian-backed administration said on Sunday that shelling by Ukrainian forces damaged an administrative building in the city of Donetsk, the capital of the Donetsk region.
“It was a direct hit, the building is seriously damaged. It’s a miracle that no one was killed,” said Alexei Kulemzin, surveying the rubble, adding that all city services were still working. Was.
There was no immediate reaction from Ukraine for the attack on the city of Donetsk, which was linked to swathes of Donbass by Russian-backed separatists in 2014.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the battlefield reports.
gunmen fired
Russia has launched a criminal investigation after gunmen shot and killed 11 people and wounded 15 at a military training ground near the Ukrainian border.
Russia’s RIA news agency, citing the defense ministry, said two gunmen opened fire with small arms during a firearms training exercise on Saturday that targeted volunteers fighting personnel in Ukraine. The RIA said the gunmen, whom it called “terrorists”, were shot dead.
The incident in the south-western Belgorod region was the latest blow for the Russian president Vladimir Putin“Special Military Operations” in Ukraine. It came a week after an explosion damaged a bridge linking mainland Russia to Crimea, the peninsula linked to Ukraine in 2014.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the attackers were from the former Soviet republic, without elaborating. A senior Ukrainian official, Oleksiy Erestovich, said the two men were from the predominantly Muslim Central Asian republic of Tajikistan and had opened fire on others after an argument over religion.
Reuters was not able to immediately confirm the comments of Erestovich, a prominent commentator on the war, or independently verify casualty numbers and other details.
Two witnesses later told Reuters that they had seen Russian air defense systems repulsing air strikes in Belgorod.
‘The sea is on our side’
A spokesman for Ukraine’s Southern Military Command said the Russian military was facing a severe shortage of equipment, including ammunition, as a result of last weekend’s damage on the Crimea Bridge.
“About 75% (of Russian military supplies in southern Ukraine) came across that bridge,” Natalia Humenyuk told Ukrainian television, adding that strong winds had now also halted ferries in the area.
“Now the sea is also on our side,” said Humenyuk.
Putin blamed Ukrainian security services for the bridge blast and last Monday, in retaliation, ordered the largest air strike against Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv, since the start of Russia’s invasion on February 24.