Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - Ukraine increased its attacks against Russian forces in the south, while Russia bombed the outskirts of K...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - Ukraine increased its attacks against Russian forces in the south, while Russia bombed the outskirts of Kyiv for the first time in weeks. This was all happening as Europe's biggest war since World War II dragged on with no end in sight.
Oleksiy Kuleba, the governor of the Kyiv region, said on Telegram that 15 people were hurt when missiles hit military installations in the Vyshhorod district on the edge of the Ukrainian capital on Thursday.
Air raid sirens went off as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke to parliament with visiting Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda on Thursday. This was the first time that Ukraine's Day of Ukrainian Statehood was a public holiday.
"It doesn't matter what Russia threatens us with, whether it's air-raid sirens or something else. What matters is that we make other countries fall in love with our Ukrainian firmness," Zelenskiy said.
The attack shattered the sense of normalcy that had returned to Kyiv since the Russians gave up trying to take the city in the first weeks of the war, when Ukrainians fought back very hard.
More than 10 Russian missiles also hit the city of Chernihiv, which is about 75 miles (120 km) northeast of Kyiv, according to Ukrainian TV. Chernihiv, like Kyiv, had not been attacked in weeks.
"This was Russia's way of wishing Ukraine a happy Day of State Sovereignty," he said, adding that there were worries about a "enemy's second phase of ground operations."
More than 20 missiles were fired at the region of Chernihiv that borders Russia, according to the North District Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The missiles came from a base in Belarus, which is an ally of Russia.
In the south, Ukraine said its planes hit five Russian strongholds around the city of Kherson and another nearby city. This is where Ukraine is focusing its biggest counter-offensive since Russia started its invasion on Feb. 24.
The area of Kherson, which is next to the part of Crimea that Russia took over, quickly fell to Russian forces after they started what Moscow calls a "special military operation." Ukraine calls what Russia is doing a war of conquest in the style of the old empires.
In the past few weeks, Ukraine has used long-range missile systems from the West to severely damage three bridges over the River Dnipro. This makes it harder for Russia to supply its troops on the western bank.
British intelligence said that the plan was starting to make it hard for Russian forces in the Kherson region to work together.
In an intelligence report, it said, "Russia's 49th Army, which is stationed on the west bank of the Dnipro River, now looks very weak."
Kherson city was now pretty much cut off from the other parts of Ukraine that Russia controlled.
"Its loss would make it very hard for Russia to say that the occupation was a success," said British intelligence.
Ukraine says that it has taken back some small towns on the northern edge of the area in the past few weeks as it tries to push back Russian forces.
The Russian defence ministry said that its planes had attacked a Ukrainian infantry brigade in the far north of the Kherson region and killed more than 130 soldiers in the last 24 hours.
Kirill Stremousov, who is the deputy head of the military-civilian government that Russia put in charge of the Kherson region, has also said that Western and Ukrainian assessments of the situation on the battlefield are wrong.
The reports from the battlefield could not be checked by Reuters.
RIA reported on Thursday that Russian security services had found a group of Ukrainian spies in Kherson. These spies were paid to give Ukraine the map coordinates of where Russian forces were so that they could fire artillery at them.
Vitaliy Kim, the governor of the Mykolaiv region, said on Telegram that two people were killed by a sea mine while swimming in the southern town of Koblevo. This happened even though swimming was banned.
EASTERN FRONT
Russia is still bombing Ukrainian targets and trying to take control of the whole industrialised Donbas region in the east, which includes the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Donetsk's regional governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said on Telegram that Russian forces shelled the town of Bakhmut four times. Russia has said that Bakhmut is one of the main places it wants to attack as it moves through Donetsk. He said that at least three people were killed and at least three more were hurt.
As the fighting went on, the international community worked to reopen Ukrainian ports and let grain and other goods leave the country.
If grain shipments from Ukraine can get through safely, it should help ease the shortages that have caused food prices to go up and caused tens of millions of people around the world to go hungry.
Last week, Russia and Ukraine made a deal to stop blocking grain exports from Black Sea ports. However, U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths said that "crucial" details were still being worked out to make sure ships could pass safely.
Griffiths was hopeful that the first grain shipment from a Ukrainian port on the Black Sea could happen as soon as Friday.
