Ukraine’s military says Russia appears to be preparing an offensive towards Sloviansky
Kyiv:
A Ukrainian military official said Russia was preparing for the next phase of its offensive in Ukraine, with Moscow saying its military would increase military operations in “all operational areas”.
As Western deliveries of long-range weapons begin to help Ukraine on the battlefield, Russian rockets and missiles have hit cities in attacks that Kyiv says have killed dozens in recent days.
“These are not just air and sea missile strikes,” Vadim Skbitsky, spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence, said late Saturday. “We can see shelling along the entire front line, along the full line of contact. There is an active use of tactical aviation and attack helicopters.
“Clearly now preparations are underway for the next phase of the offensive.”
The Ukrainian military said that Russia appears to be regrouping units for an offensive towards Slovakia, a symbolically important city held by Ukraine in the area east of Donetsk.
The British Defense Ministry said on Sunday that Russia is also beefing up security in its occupied territories in southern Ukraine following pressure from Ukrainian forces and Ukrainian leaders’ promises to expel Russia.
Ukraine says at least 40 people have been killed in Russian shelling in urban areas since Thursday as the war started on 24 February intensified by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Dozens of relatives and local residents attended the funeral of four-year-old Liza Dmitrieva on Sunday in the Ukrainian city of Vinnitsia. According to Ukrainian officials, the girl was killed in a missile attack on Central Vinnytsia on Thursday, in which 24 people were killed.
To the south, more than 50 Russian Grad rockets hurled the city of Nikopol over the Dnipro River, killing two people found in the rubble, Governor Valentin Reznichenko said.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia has used more than 3,000 cruise missiles so far and the number of artillery and other strikes was “impossible to count”.
Zelensky sacks top officials
Meanwhile, Zelensky fired the head of Ukraine’s powerful domestic security agency, Ivan Bakanov, and Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova, who led the effort to prosecute Russian war crimes, saying that many of his employees were collaborating with Russia. Were were
Zelensky said more than 60 officers from two of his agencies are now working against Ukraine in Russian-occupied territories, and that 651 treason and cooperation cases have been opened against law enforcement officials.
“Such crimes against the foundation of the state’s national security … are very serious questions for the leaders concerned,” Zelensky said in a Telegram post.
Kyiv and the West maintain that the conflict is an unprovoked attempt to re-conquer a country that had been liberated from Moscow’s rule with the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Moscow called the invasion a “special military operation” to remove troops from its neighboring country and root out the Nationalists, using high-precision weapons to degrade Ukraine’s military infrastructure. Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians.
According to a ministry statement, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered military units to intensify operations to prevent Ukrainian attacks on Russian-occupied territories.
His remarks on Saturday appeared to be a direct response to successful attacks on 30 Russian logistics and ammunition centers, according to Kyiv, recently using multiple launch rocket systems supplied by the West.
According to Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, the strikes are wreaking havoc along Russian supply lines and have significantly reduced Russia’s offensive capability.
Ukrainian officials say new US-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) they found last month allow them to reach targets in Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, and Russia’s in other occupied territories.
Ukraine’s president’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, wrote on Telegram on Sunday with a video, “Good morning from Himars,” along with a video showing a massive explosion, which he said destroyed another Russian ammunition in southern Ukraine. There was a depot.
On Sunday, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the refusal of Ukraine and NATO powers to recognize Moscow’s authority over Crimea represented a “systemic threat” to Russia, which has the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet.
Serhi Brachuk, a spokesman for the Odessa regional administration, said on Telegram late Sunday that a “significant number” of Russian warships moved along Russia’s Black Sea coast from Crimea to Novorossiysk.
Russian-backed separatists have said HIMARS rockets killed two civilians and damaged a bus depot and several other buildings in Alchevsk, east of Solvinsk. Ukraine’s armed forces said they attacked the bus depot because they knew it was being used to house Russian troops.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces had destroyed a launch ramp and reloading vehicle for one of the HIMARS systems deployed near the eastern city of Pokrovsk.
Pokrovsk regional police chief Ruslan Osipenko said Russia had fired several rocket launchers into a residential area and there were dead and wounded. It released video of damaged homes and residents describing the attack.
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