Volodymyr Zelensky hails ‘powerful day’ in Ukraine’s counter-offensive
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olodymyr Zelensky hailed a “powerful day” in Ukraine’s counter-offensive highlighting fierce combating close to the japanese city of Bakhmut.
Ukraine’s president additionally stated Putin’s struggle was “gradually returning to Russia’s territory – to its symbolic centres” – after a drone assault on Moscow.
A senior Ukrainian official careworn that there had been heavy combating within the northeast of the nation on Sunday, with Kyiv’s forces holding their traces and making beneficial properties in some areas.
Russia’s navy stated it had halted Ukrainian forces within the north-east.
The navy additionally stated it introduced down down three Ukrainian drones which had tried to strike Moscow and broken a high-rise constructing reported to accommodate authorities places of work.
But in his day by day deal with on Sunday, Mr Zelensky stated: “Thank you all for this day at the front – a good day, a powerful day. Bakhmut direction, other very hot and painful areas in Donbas: Avdiivka, Maryinka, and, of course, the southern directions…
“The 5th assault brigade, the 80th separate airborne assault brigade, the 92nd separate and 110th separate mechanized brigades are very, very strong… The marines of the 35th and 36th brigades, the paratroopers of the famous “Seventy-ninth”, the forty seventh separate mechanized brigade, the artillerymen of the fifty fifth separate brigade. Well completed, warriors!”
Ukraine has in a roundabout way claimed duty for the drone assaults on Moscow.
But Mr Zelensky added: “Gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia – to its symbolic centres and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process.”
Russian forces launched the newest in a collection of night-time air assaults, hanging what officers stated was a “non-residential building” within the northeastern metropolis of Kharkiv. The hit began a hearth however there have been no stories of casualties.
Mr Zelensky reported that the dying toll in a Russian strike on a college within the northern city of Sumy on Saturday had risen to 2 after rescue groups cleared rubble from the positioning.
Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar stated Russian forces had been “trying to drive us out” of elevated positions within the northeast occupied by Putin’s military after its February 2022 invasion, however retaken later by Ukrainian troops.
The Russians’ key activity, she advised nationwide tv, was to “divert our forces from the Bakhmut area, where we have a successful offensive”.
“They have attacked endlessly this week. But our troops resist the attacks and sometimes push them back with heavy losses,” she stated.
Ms Maliar stated the Russians had suffered “no fewer losses than during the heated battles in Bakhmut”, which fell to Russian forces after greater than ten months of combating.
This declare couldn’t be independently verified.
Ukraine final month launched a counter-offensive specializing in a southward marketing campaign to drive a wedge between Russian forces holding territory within the east and the annexed Crimean peninsula, and on successful again floor round Bakhmut.
But fierce combating has additionally flared across the Ukrainian -held northeastern cities of Kupiansk and Lyman.
Ms Maliar stated Russian forces had been additionally “tenaciously trying to seize back” areas on the southern entrance taken by Ukraine.
Ukraine, she stated, had recaptured 200 sq. km. (77 sq. miles) within the south, however advances had been restricted by entrenched Russian positions and mines.
Russia’s Defence Ministry, in its day by day account of navy exercise, stated its forces had noticed and deployed rockets to destroy an аrmoured brigade of Ukrainian troops close to Svatove, a key Russian-held city within the northeast.
Russian forces, it stated, had additionally repelled 4 Ukrainian assaults close to the city of Lyman, additional south.