UKRAINE: The Ukrainian military has admitted to repelling more than a dozen Russian attacks in the country’s east and north, including attempts by the red army to annex key cities in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
In its regular Facebook update, the Ukrainian military’s general staff’s office notified that Russian troops had attempted to advance towards Kramatorsk, one of the two major cities in the eastern Donetsk province that remain under Ukrainian control, but “they failed completely and chaotically retreated to their previous positions”.
The same post also revealed that the Russians had made an unsuccessful attempt at capturing Bakhmut, a strategic town in the Donetsk region, whose annexation would have given the red army easy access to Kramatorsk and through it, to the de facto Ukrainian administrative capital of Sloviansk.
The Donetsk region is one of the two major provinces that make up the Donbas, where the shelling has been primarily focused in recent months, ever since Russia retracted its troops from around the capital region of Kyiv.
Meanwhile, Russia achieved some success as it announced the capture of the Luhansk region last month, though the Ukrainian governor has consistently maintained that Kyiv’s forces are stationed in a small area near the regional boundary.
Russia has also gained military mileage over Ukraine through the annexation and renewed shelling of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia in the last few weeks.
While both sides blamed for the shelling, fears of a nuclear leak or damage prompted the UN to issue a warning, which, if not followed, could spell “catastrophe” for the rest of Europe.
In other news, the ship, Brave Commander, has departed the Ukrainian port of Pivdennyi, carrying the first shipment of humanitarian food aid bound for Africa from Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, according to Refinitiv Eikon data on Tuesday. Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Nations all agreed to the deal.
Also Read: Russian Troops Strike Ukraine’s Donetsk Region; Heavy Shelling Continues
