KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian officers reported intense fight as Russian forces relentlessly assaulted the japanese Ukrainian metropolis of Avdiivka for a fifth consecutive day Saturday.
Metropolis chief Vitalii Barabash reported that Moscow was deploying extra forces tko encircle the strategically vital metropolis within the japanese Donetsk area, located simply north of the Russian-held regional capital, additionally referred to as Donetsk.
“The enemy hasn’t stopped both assaulting or shelling positions” round Avdiivka, Barabash mentioned on Ukrainian tv.
Round 1,600 civilians stay inside the metropolis, a stark distinction to its pre-war inhabitants of about 31,000. Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his warfare towards Ukraine in February 2022.
Barabash’s feedback got here after Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, advised a U.N. Safety Council assembly on Friday that the intensified assaults within the east amounted to a brand new stage in Moscow’s marketing campaign in Ukraine.
“Russian troops have, for a number of days now, converted to lively fight motion virtually all through the complete entrance line. … The so-called Ukrainian counteroffensive can due to this fact be thought of completed,” he mentioned.
However Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned earlier this week that Ukrainian forces have been retaining Russian troops at bay and “holding our floor.”
Donetsk’s performing regional governor, Ihor Moroz, mentioned Saturday that 22 civilians have been wounded in Russian shelling within the area over the earlier 24 hours.
Additional north, preventing alongside the northern stretch of Ukraine’s japanese entrance has “considerably worsened” in latest days, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s land forces, wrote on Fb Saturday.
Syrskyi, who visited troops within the space, mentioned that Russian forces had regrouped following losses and have been mounting assaults across the village of Makiivka and pushing towards the town of Kupiansk, with the purpose of encircling Kupiansk and reaching the Oskil River.
Additionally on Saturday, two ladies — ages 60 and 42 — have been killed in two Russian shelling assaults within the metropolis of Beryslav in Ukraine’s partly-occupied Kherson area.
In Russia, the Protection Ministry mentioned air protection methods shot down two Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea close to the southern resort metropolis of Sochi on Saturday morning. A drone was additionally shot down within the Belgorod area bordering Ukraine throughout the afternoon, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov mentioned. Ukrainian officers have by no means acknowledged duty for assaults on Russian territory.