Russian missiles strike Ukrainian cities as floor battle rages in Bakhmut By Reuters

By Olena Harmash

KYIV (Reuters) -Russian missiles struck cities throughout Ukraine, together with the capital Kyiv, the Black Sea port of Odesa and the second metropolis of Kharkiv early on Thursday, whereas Ukrainian defenders repelled fierce assaults on the beleaguered city of Bakhmut.

The missiles hit a large arc of targets, together with cities stretching from Zhytomyr, Vynnytsia and Rivne within the west to Dnipro and Poltava in central Ukraine, officers mentioned.

There have been no fast experiences of any casualties.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko mentioned explosions have been registered within the southwestern a part of the city and rescue providers have been on their approach. Some residents reported energy cuts.

The governor of Odesa area, Maksym Marchenko, mentioned on Telegram {that a} mass missile assault had hit an power facility within the port metropolis, chopping energy. Residential areas had additionally been hit.

Kharkiv area Governor Oleh Synehubov mentioned the town and area had been hit by 15 strikes, with targets together with infrastructure. Different strikes have been reported within the central metropolis of Dnipro and areas all through the nation.

Late on Wednesday, Ukraine’s army mentioned its forces had managed to push again intense Russian assaults on the jap mining city of Bakhmut, regardless of a Russian declare of management of its jap half.

As one of many bloodiest battles of the year-long struggle floor on within the city’s ruins, Ukrainian defenders – who final week gave the impression to be getting ready for a tactical retreat – remained defiant.

“The enemy continued its assaults and has proven no signal of a letup in storming the town of Bakhmut,” the Common Employees of the Ukrainian armed forces mentioned on Fb (NASDAQ:). “Our defenders repelled assaults on Bakhmut and on surrounding communities.”

Ukrainian army and political leaders now converse of hanging on to positions and inflicting as many casualties as attainable on the Russians to grind down their preventing functionality.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy mentioned in a video deal with late on Wednesday that the battle for Bakhmut and the encompassing Donbas area was “our first precedence”.

In a separate interview with CNN, he mentioned: “We expect that within the Donbas route Russia has began its offensive. That is the offensive. That is what it seems like: a gradual aggression, as a result of they do not have sufficient power and forces.”

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, mentioned his fighters had captured the jap a part of Bakhmut. If true, Russian forces would management almost half the town in a pricey pursuit of their first massive victory in a number of months.

“All the pieces east of the Bakhmutka River is totally underneath the management of Wagner,” Prigozhin mentioned on the Telegram messaging app.

The river bisects Bakhmut, on the sting of Ukraine’s Donetsk province that’s already largely underneath Russian occupation. The city centre is on the west facet of the river. 

Prigozhin has issued untimely success claims earlier than. Reuters was unable to confirm the scenario on the bottom.

Ukrainian army analyst Oleh Zhdanov mentioned that along with the Zabakhmutka district on the jap outskirts of Bakhmut, the Russians had captured Ilyinivka district on the north facet.

“The scenario is important,” he mentioned in a video commentary, including that Russian forces had additionally made good points close to Avdiivka to the south of Bakhmut in addition to to the north round Svatovo.

ARMS BUYING PUSH

Russia was throwing extra troops into the battle, NATO Secretary-Common Jens Stoltenberg mentioned earlier than a gathering of European Union defence ministers in Stockholm.

“They’ve suffered massive losses, however on the similar time we can’t rule out that Bakhmut could finally fall within the coming days,” Stoltenberg mentioned. 

    EU defence ministers agreed to hurry up the provision of artillery rounds and purchase extra shells to assist Ukraine’s army, which is burning by shells quicker than its allies can manufacture them.

Beneath the plan, EU states would get monetary incentives price 1 billion euros to ship extra of their artillery rounds to Kyiv, whereas one other 1 billion euros would fund joint procurement of recent shells.

COUNTEROFFENSIVE?

Russia has mentioned it has annexed almost 20% of Ukraine’s territory and says taking Bakhmut can be a step in direction of seizing the entire of the commercial Donbas area on its border.

Western analysts say Bakhmut has little strategic worth, though its seize can be a lift to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his army after a sequence of setbacks in what they name their “particular army operation”.

Russia casts its invasion of Ukraine as a response to threats to its safety from its neighbour’s ties to the West.

Kyiv says the losses suffered by Russia within the battle for Bakhmut might decide the course of the struggle, with Ukraine anticipated to launch a counteroffensive when the climate improves and it receives extra Western army support, together with tanks.

A Ukrainian army drone confirmed the size of destruction in Bakhmut, filming condominium blocks on hearth and smoke billowing from residential areas.

Iryna Vereshchuk, a deputy Ukrainian premier, mentioned fewer than 4,000 civilians – together with 38 youngsters – out of a pre-war inhabitants of some 70,000 stay in Bakhmut.