Ukraine military chief warns of worsening war

kyiv, UkraineUkraine’s military chief warned Saturday that the battlefield situation in the industrial east has “worsened significantly in recent days,” as warmer weather allowed Russian forces to advance along several stretches of the front. one thousand kilometers long (620 miles).

Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyy said on Telegram that Moscow had “significantly” stepped up its attacks since last month’s election, where President Vladimir Putin extended his nearly quarter-century rule.

According to Syrskyy, Russian forces have been “actively attacking” Ukrainian positions in three areas of the eastern Donetsk region, near the cities of Lyman, Bakhmut and Pokrovsk, and have begun launching tank attacks as the spring weather warms. dry and warm has made it easier for heavy vehicles to move through previously muddy terrain.

“Despite significant losses, the enemy is intensifying its efforts using new units (equipped with) armored vehicles, thanks to which it periodically achieves tactical successes,” Syrskyy said.

A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman confirmed Saturday the capture of a village that was the scene of fierce fighting for almost 18 months. Analysts from Ukraine’s non-governmental group Deep State had reported the Russian takeover of Pervomaiske, about 45 kilometers (28 miles) southeast of Pokrovsk, in the early hours of Thursday.

On Saturday, the group reported via Telegram that Moscow’s forces had also taken Bohdanivka, another eastern village near the city of Bakhmut, where the bloodiest battle of the war raged for nine months until it fell to Russia in May. past. Shortly afterward, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry denied that Bohdanivka had been captured and said “intense fighting was continuing there.”

More than two years into the war, Russian troops are increasing pressure on exhausted Ukrainian forces on the front lines to seize more territory this spring and summer.

Russia has relied on its advantage in firepower and personnel to step up attacks across eastern Ukraine. It has increasingly used satellite-guided bombs, which allow planes to drop them from a safe distance, to hit Ukrainian forces burdened by a shortage of troops and ammunition.

Separately, at least 10 people, including children, died after a bombing on a Russian-occupied town in the Ukrainian province of Zaporizhzhia, a local official appointed by the Kremlin reported on Saturday, blaming Kiev for the attack.

The Tokmak municipal government said on Telegram that the bombing hit three apartment blocks on Friday night. Five people were pulled alive from the wreckage and 13 were hospitalized, said the Russian-appointed head of the region, Yevhen Balitsky.

Russian emergency services were working through the rubble on Saturday in the hope of rescuing civilians trapped under their homes in Tokmak, in an area of ​​southern Ukraine that the Kremlin illegally annexed after the start of the war in 2022.

A Ukrainian rocket hit a machine-building plant in Luhansk, Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine, injuring three civilians, Vladimir Rogov, a Moscow-based official, posted on Telegram on Saturday.

Leonid Pasechnik, a Kremlin-installed official who reported on the attack, said on Telegram that Russian-appointed authorities in Luhansk planned to bring the plant back online “in the near future,” but did not say what might have occurred there.

Rogov and Pasechnik reported that the rocket attack also damaged residential homes, but provided no evidence to support their claim.

A video appearing on Rogov’s Telegram post showed a column of smoke rising into the sky behind a low-rise house, which appeared undamaged.

Ukrainian officials did not acknowledge or comment on any of the attacks.

Also in Ukraine, Russian forces bombed a food delivery vehicle in the northern Chernihiv region, killing its civilian driver, provincial governor Vyacheslav Chaus said.

Elsewhere in the country, at least two civilians were killed by Russian bombing on Friday and overnight, according to authorities. Both deaths were recorded in the eastern Donetsk region, which is on the front line, according to posts by the governor, Vadym Filashkin, on Telegram.

In the northeastern region of Kharkiv, overnight Russian shelling left one man trapped in rubble and injured another, the governor, Oleh Syniehubov, and Ukrainian emergency services said. Both were hospitalized, according to a message from emergency services on Telegram.

Local Ukrainian officials reported that more than a dozen civilians were injured in Russian bombing in recent hours in the north, south and east of the country.

The allegations by Balitsky and Ukrainian authorities could not immediately be verified.