Ukrainian officials have reported missile attacks and shelling in several regions as Russian forces focus their efforts on the front lines in Luhansk — but they claim more successes in the Kharkiv region. In addition, a rare missile attack was reported in the western region of Lviv.
Serhiy Hayday, head of Luhansk’s regional military administration, said earlier this Sunday that “the Russians are gathering equipment and manpower closer to Severodonetsk and preparing to attack it.”
Severodonetsk is one of several industrial cities in the east that have been under relentless bombing for weeks as Russian forces try to take down Ukrainian defenses.
Hayday said the city’s chemical plant and skyscrapers were hit. There is a lot of destruction: 11 skyscrapers in the new and old neighborhoods of the city (were hit), in several of them apartments caught fire.”
Several settlements south and west of Severodonetsk were also hit – including Vrubivka and Komyshuvakha – Hayday said.
Russian forces are expected to advance further west if they can secure Severodonetsk, where 15,000 people still live. Most residents were evacuated.
Ukraine provided few details about its counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region, where its troops made significant advances north and east towards the Russian border. The purpose of the Ukrainian offensive is to cut off Russian supply lines for its forces trying to advance into the Donetsk region.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces said on Sunday only that “in the direction of Kharkiv, enemy units did not conduct active hostilities”.
However, Oleh Syniehubov, head of Kharkiv’s regional military administration, said that Ukrainian units “are constantly strengthening their positions, pushing the enemy from the borders of the city of Kharkiv to the borders of the Russian Federation. The north and northeast directions are the hottest; there are active hostilities there.”
He said the city of Kharkiv “has been relatively quiet for several days, there have been no bombings in the city itself. About 2,000 people return to Kharkiv every day, and the number is growing every day.” This is in part because the city is now beyond the reach of many Russian artillery and rocket systems.
But further south, according to Syniehubov, several towns were attacked.
He said that “the enemy is constantly checking the positions of our armed forces near Barvinkove, trying to break through, but to no avail. The enemy suffered heavy losses of manpower and equipment.”
The General Staff further said that Russian forces are stepping up efforts in this area, reporting that “the enemy tried to break through our troops’ defenses but was unsuccessful. Troop regrouping continues to resume the offensive towards Barvinkove and Sloviansk”, two key objectives for Russian forces in the region.
Elsewhere, the General Staff reported new air strikes in the Chernihiv and Sumy regions of northern Ukraine. Dmytro Zhyvytskyy, head of the military administration for the Sumy region, said rockets and air strikes overnight had damaged border villages, but there were no casualties.
In the west, Maksym Kozytskyi, head of Lviv’s regional military administration, said there had been a missile strike against “military infrastructure”, but did not give details on the location or casualties.
On the southern front, regional officials say the Russians have begun digging trenches at some frontline positions.
The Zaporizhzhia regional military administration said the Russians “are digging trenches along the Molochna River” as they continue to bomb cities in the area.
Source: CNN Brasil
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