Kyiv’s troops are pushing through heavy intense artillery fire from Russian forces to advance in the east of Ukraine, the commander of the country’s armed forces has said.
Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi said that despite meeting stiff resistance, Ukraine’s ground forces are making “gradual advances in the direction of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region. The city, which is now occupied by Russian forces, has gained symbolic significance for both Kyiv and Moscow having been the scene for some of the most intense fighting of the war.
“The enemy fiercely clings to every centimetre, conducting intense artillery and mortar fire,” Col Gen Syrskyi said in a statement.
It comes after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky posted a video late on Thursday night in which Ukrainian soldiers said they had taken the village of Staromaiorske, which sits in the western part of Donetsk region, the opposite side to Bakhmut. Russian military bloggers said artillery fire at the Ukrainian troops had effectively razed the village and reported more barrages on Friday.
Capturing the village, which is south of a cluster of settlements that Ukraine captured at the beginning of its counteroffensive last month, would give Ukraine a platform to push deeper into Russian-held territory.
Fighting has intensified at multiple places along the more than 600-mile front line, where Ukraine deployed its recently acquired Western weapons to push back Russia’s troops. That includes the southern Zaporizhzhia region. However, Kyiv’s troops are attacking without the air support it says is vital – and face an enemy which has had months to fortify positions as Ukraine prepared its counterpunch. Russia is trying to hold on to the territory it controls in the four provinces it illegally annexed in September: Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Kherson and Luhansk.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky attends a ceremony marking Statehood Day, in Kyiv on Friday— (via Reuters)
Col Gen Syrskyi said fighting that targets the enemy’s artillery as well as its command and control structure is a priority as his troops probe Russian lines for weaknesses.
“In these conditions, it is crucial to make timely management decisions in response to the situation at hand and take measures for manoeuvering forces and resources, shifting units and troops to areas where success is evident, or withdrawing them from the enemy’s fire,” he said.
Elsewhere, Mr Zelensky marked Ukraine’s Statehood Day – which coincides with commemorations of the adoption of Christianity on lands that later became Ukraine, Russia and Belarus – by reaffirming the country’s sovereignty. His words were a rebuke to Russian president Vladimir Putin, who used his claim that Ukraine didn’t exist as a nation to justify his invasion.
“Now, like more than a thousand years ago, our civilisational choice is unity with the world,” Mr Zelensky said in a speech on a square outside St Michael’s Monastery in Kyiv. “To be a power in world history. To have the right to its national history, of its people, its land, its state. And of our children, all future generations of the Ukrainian people. We will definitely win!”
Moscow also accused Kyiv of firing two missiles at southern Russia, with the Defence Ministry saying it shot down a missile in the city of Taganrog, about 20 miles east of the border with Ukraine. Local officials reported 20 people were injured. The ministry later said it downed a second missile near the city of Azov.
Ukrainian soldiers fire toward Russian position on the front line in Zaporizhzhia region— (AP)
Ukraine’s secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, Oleksiy Danilov, blamed Russian air defence systems for the explosion in Taganog.
Separately, an explosion was reported to have hit an oil refinery in the southwestern Russian city of Samara.
In St Petersburg, African leaders pressed Mr Putin to move ahead with their peace plan, aimed at ending Russia’s invasion, and renew the deal on the export of Ukrainian grain that Moscow tore up last week.
While not directly critical of Russia, the words on the second day of their summit were more forceful than those previously voiced. “This war must end. And it can only end on the basis of justice and reason,” African Union Commission chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat said.
Egyptian president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi urged Russia to revive the Black Sea grain deal. Since withdrawing from the deal, Russia has bombed Ukrainian ports and grain depots.
Mr Sisi, whose country is a big buyer of grain via the Black Sea route, told the summit it was “essential to reach agreement” on reviving the deal.
A senior Ukrainian official accused Russia on Friday of threatening civilian vessels in the Black Sea, urging the international community to condemn Moscow’s actions.
Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report
