Others suggested the bombing could signal a renewed Russian offensive targeting towns in Donetsk province. In a video posted on social media around midnight outside Bahamut, continuous gunfire can be seen lighting up the night sky and a woman’s voice can be heard saying: “My mother is there! Fuck, fuck, fucking hell.” A man named Nikolai says: “Everything is on fire. They hit the power lines.” As the woman speaks again, apparently wanting to borrow a phone to call her mother, the man interrupts. “Your mom is fucked. It’s Stupky [that’s getting hit],” he says, referring to a northern region of Bahamut. Describing the situation on his Telegram channel, Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kirilenko said Russian forces were “continuously shelling the entire free area of the Donetsk region. [with] Bakhmut region suffers the most.” According to Kyrylenko, one person was killed and five others were injured in the city, which has been largely evacuated. The Russian military has been struggling to cope with daily Ukrainian raids on its ammunition depots and command centers in recent days. The Ukrainian attack on the city of Luhansk, which has been under the control of Russian-backed separatists since 2014, was confirmed by pro-Russian separatist officials in the city. A spokesman for the separatist forces, Andrei Marochko, said the Ukrainian military had inflicted a “massive blow” on the air defense system in Luhansk, Russian news agency Interfax reported. The latest intelligence update from the UK Ministry of Defense was among those suggesting the recent uptick in violence may signal renewed Russian offensive efforts. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “In Donbass [the collective name for Donetsk and Luhansk provinces], Russian forces will likely focus on capturing several small towns during the coming week, including Siversk and Dolnya on the approaches to Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. The urban areas of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk likely remain the main targets for this phase of operations.” Bakhmat has long been seen as a key target for Russian forces, located about 10 miles from the border with Luhansk province, which is now entirely held by Russia. The Defense Department’s assessment was echoed by the latest assessment by the US-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War, which suggested the recent bombing may be a prelude to a renewed Russian offensive. “Russian forces will likely continue to pound areas around Sloviansk to set conditions for a new offensive towards Sloviansk and Kramatorsk,” it said. International attention has recently focused on Ukraine’s recent successes using the Himars system to target key Russian logistics and command and control networks. Some observers suggest that the use of Kheimar marks a return to the successful hit-and-run tactics used by Ukraine at the start of the war. Ukraine has eight of the Himar systems – highly accurate truck-mounted missile launchers – and Washington has promised to send four more. In a lengthy Twitter thread, retired Australian general Mick Ryan said the Himari was changing the nature of the fighting by allowing Ukraine to strike Russian targets at greater distances than before and in areas previously denied by Russian air defense systems. “[Ukrainians] they attack Russia’s weak points once again – its railway logistics, its overly talkative generals on the battlefield and its over-reliance on massed artillery to advance east,” he wrote. “A key target is command and control nodes, or in other words, command posts with senior Russian commanders. The ability to quickly target these once they are spotted and use the precision of #HIMARS missiles to cause maximum destruction is vital… Being a munitions operator in a logistics depot is probably now the least desirable job in the Russian military. These psychological effects have a cost to the effectiveness of a military organization.’ In other news, the death toll from a Russian rocket attack that hit a Donetsk apartment building on Saturday rose to 45, emergency services said late Tuesday. He said workers found more bodies and also rescued nine people as they dug through the rubble of the five-story building in Chasiv Yar throughout the day. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST Many in Donbas, a fertile industrial region, refuse – or are unable – to flee, despite dozens of civilians being killed and wounded on a weekly basis. The Russian raids also hit residential buildings in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, and the surrounding area in the northeast, killing four civilians and wounding nine, Ukrainian officials said. “The Russians continue their tactics of intimidation of the peaceful population of the Kharkiv region,” Kharkov Governor Oleh Synyehubov wrote on Telegram. Russian forces also hit the southern city of Mykolaiv, hitting residential buildings. Twelve people were injured in the shelling, with some of the rockets hitting two medical facilities, regional governor Vitaly Kim said on Telegram.
