As Russia intensifies its attack on the eastern part of Ukraine, the Ukrainian military claimed that Russian forces are making little progress, especially in the Donetsk region.
“The advance of enemy units during hostilities towards Donetsk is low due to the physical exhaustion of the personnel and a low moral and psychological condition,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Saturday.
Russian air activity “remains high” over eastern Ukraine and has contributed to Russia’s “recent tactical successes” but “has had no significant impact on the conflict,” according to the latest assessment by the British Ministry of Defense intelligence on Saturday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this week said a fifth of the country’s territory is under Russian control, with Donbas “almost completely destroyed.”
This is the status of fighting across the country, according to the Ukrainian military.
The East
In the Bakhmut area of the Donetsk region, Russian troops were forced to withdraw after they “suffered the consequences of fire damage from Ukrainian units”.
In the Sloviansk area of Donetsk, Russia failed in “assault operations” in two areas and suffered “losses,” the Ukrainian army said. Russia also carried out “artillery shelling” in three other areas.
The Ukrainian army has said Russian units are being reinforced on the approach to Sloviansk as they prepare for renewed attacks on the city. Hundreds of people flee Sloviansk every day, and the number of evacuations has nearly doubled this week, the city’s military administration chief Vadym Lyakh said on Saturday. There are currently about 22,000 people left in the city, about a fifth of the pre-war population of about 110,000, according to Lyakh.
In total, Ukraine has repulsed nine Russian attacks in the Donbas region in the past 24 hours, the army said.
But Russia has “not stopped offensive operations” and “continues to launch missiles and air strikes on military and civilian infrastructure,” the statement said.
Four people have been killed and one injured in the Luhansk region after Russian attacks in six areas, regional officials said. In the battle for the city of Severodonetsk, street fighting continues and there were “strikes in the industrial zone” of the city, which is still in the hands of Ukrainian troops.
According to Serhiy Hayday, head of the military administration of the Luhansk region, Ukraine now controls about half of Severodonetsk after reclaiming some land from the Russians.
Britain’s Defense Ministry said on Friday it expects Russia to take control of the entire Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine within the next two weeks, according to the latest intelligence assessment.
The Northeast
According to Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, head of Sumy’s regional military administration, the Russians fired six air-to-surface missiles on Saturday morning and rockets were fired from a Russian plane during the night. Homes were damaged, but there were no casualties in the attacks.
In the Kharkiv region, one person has died and eight people were injured after shelling in Balaklia, including an 11-year-old girl, regional officials said. The military statement added that “intense fire continues” against Ukrainian troop positions.
South
In Odessa, two people were injured on Saturday morning after a cruise missile deployed by a Russian plane hit a farm warehouse, said Serhii Bratchuk, spokesman for the Odessa military administration.
Farther east, the city of Mykolaiv was “fired with heavy artillery and multiple rocket launchers” on Saturday morning. No one was injured, regional officials said.
In the Kherson area, the situation remains “stablely difficult,” regional officials said. Russian troops continued to shell the Novovorontsovka area. Telephone and internet communications remain limited for “the vast majority” of the region’s population, and “urgent humanitarian assistance” is needed in Kakhovka and Beryslav districts along the Dnipro River, the statement said. †