In the course of its ongoing counter-offensive, Ukraine reportedly carried out a successful attack on a bridge to the annexed Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and made advances near Bakhmut in the east.
Regardless of these reports, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin has denied any Ukrainian successes in Russia’s more than 17-month war of aggression against the country. On the night of Sunday, Moscow was again the target of a drone attack. A security guard was injured.
Meanwhile, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki expressed concern about troop movements by Russian Wagner mercenaries in neighboring Belarus.
The Russian capital Moscow has again become the target of a drone attack. A total of three drones were shot down, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday morning, according to a report by the state news agency TASS.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote on Telegram: “Ukrainian drones attacked last night.” The facade of two office buildings was slightly damaged. Tass reported an injured security guard in the morning, citing emergency services. Sobyanin had previously written to Telegram that there were no fatalities or injuries.
Moscow Vnukovo Airport in the south-west of the Russian capital has been temporarily closed to departures and arrivals, according to Tass. Flights were diverted. Operations continued at other airports in the region.
The metropolis of millions has already been the target of drone attacks several times, which, however, bear no relation to the mass attacks by Russia in its war of aggression against Ukraine. Moscow repeatedly fired drones, rockets and cruise missiles at the capital Kiev. There were dead, injured and massive damage in Kiev.
The Chonhar Bridge, which connects Crimea to mainland Kherson Oblast, was attacked and damaged on Saturday morning, the Ukrainian Army’s Strategic Communications Department said.
The Russian occupation chief of Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, had previously also reported Ukrainian rocket attacks on the railway line, but claimed that all twelve missiles had been repelled. The information could not be checked independently.
The Chonhar Bridge, which is, among other things, an important supply route for the Russian army, had already been attacked and damaged by the Ukrainians in June.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maljar wrote on Telegram that their own army was advancing “gradually but surely” in the south towards the cities of Melitopol and Berdyansk. In addition, with a view to the heavy fighting on the front in the eastern Donetsk region, she said: “Today we advanced further on the southern flank around Bakhmut.”
Russian troops had conquered Bakhmut a few months ago after extremely costly battles. Since then they have occupied the city, which had around 70,000 inhabitants before the start of the Russian war of aggression.
As part of their counter-offensive, the Ukrainian army now wants to liberate occupied areas. Most recently, she reported smaller successes, especially from the south-east of her country. British military experts also reported increasing fighting in southern Ukraine.
According to his own statements, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj visited the front near Bakhmut on Saturday. On the occasion of the day of the special forces of the Ukrainian army, he thanked the soldiers there for their commitment, Zelenskyj said on Telegram. He also released a video showing him shaking hands with fighters and presenting awards.
Contrary to reports from Kiev and the West, Russian President Putin has denied Ukrainian advances at the front. “No, there are no major changes,” Putin told journalists in the Russian Baltic Sea metropolis of St. Petersburg.
“Of course the enemy was stopped everywhere and pushed back,” he claimed. The Ukrainians, on the other hand, only reported the liberation of the village of Staromajorske in southern Donetsk region at the end of the week.
According to official sources, two people were killed as a result of a Russian rocket attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia. City council secretary Anatoly Kurtyev said the dead were a man and a woman. Another woman was injured. The blast from the detonation destroyed the windows of a high-rise building, an educational facility and a supermarket.
Poland’s Prime Minister Morawiecki has expressed concern about troop movements by Russian Wagner mercenaries in neighboring Belarus. “We have information that more than a hundred Wagner Group mercenaries advanced towards the Suwalki Gap, not far from Grudno in Belarus,” the national conservative politician said, according to the PAP agency on Saturday.
Heavy fighting continues in the east and south of Ukraine. After the liberation of the village of Staromajorske in the Donetsk region a few days ago, it is eagerly awaited whether the Ukrainian army will succeed in further breakthroughs.
