Russian forces are raising “real hell” in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, despite estimates that they were taking an operational pause, the regional governor said on Saturday, while another Ukrainian official urged residents in the Russian-held southern regions to leave quickly “at all costs.” means”. before a Ukrainian counterattack. Deadly Russian shelling was reported in eastern and southern Ukraine. The governor of eastern Luhansk region, Serhyi Haidai, said Russia had launched more than 20 artillery, mortar and rocket attacks in the area overnight and its forces were pushing towards the border with Donetsk region. “We are trying to contain the armed formations of the Russians along the entire front line,” Haidai wrote on Telegram. Last week, Russia captured the last major stronghold of the Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk, the town of Lysychansk. Analysts predicted that Moscow’s troops would likely need some time to re-equip and regroup. But “so far no operational pause has been announced by the enemy. It is still attacking and shelling our territories with the same intensity as before,” Haidai said. He later said that the Russian bombardment of Luhansk had been suspended because Ukrainian forces had destroyed ammunition depots and barracks used by the Russians. Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk appealed to residents of Russian territories in the south to evacuate quickly so that occupation forces cannot use them as human shields during a Ukrainian counter-attack. “You have to find a way to leave, because the armed forces are coming to take us over,” he said. “There will be a massive fight.” Speaking at a press conference late Friday, Vereshchuk said an evacuation effort was underway for parts of Kherson and Zaporizhia regions. He declined to give details, citing security. It was unclear how civilians were expected to safely leave Russian-held areas while rocket and shelling of surrounding areas continued, whether they would be allowed to leave or even heed the government’s appeal. The war’s death toll continued to rise. Five people were killed and eight others wounded in Friday’s Russian shelling of Shiversk and Semikhria in the Donetsk region, its governor, Pavlo Kirilenko, wrote on Telegram on Saturday. In the city of Sloviansk, called a possible next target of Russia’s attack, rescuers pulled a 40-year-old man from the rubble of a building destroyed by shelling on Saturday. Kyrylenko said several people were under the debris. Russian rockets also killed two people and wounded three others on Saturday in the southern city of Kryvyi Rih, according to regional authorities. “They deliberately targeted populated areas,” Valentin Reznichenko, governor of the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, told Telegram. Kryvyi Rih Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul claimed on Facebook that cluster munitions had been used and urged residents not to approach unknown objects on the streets. More explosions were reported Saturday night. Kryvyi Rih is home to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who visited on Friday to meet with Vilkul and the brigadier general who commands troops in the region. Zelensky’s office said it was informed of the “construction of defense structures”, support for troops, the supply of food and medicine to the city and help given to people who had taken refuge in Kryvyi Rih after being driven from their homes elsewhere in Ukraine. In northeastern Ukraine, a Russian rocket attack hit the center of Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv on Saturday, injuring six people, including a 12-year-old girl, authorities said. “An Iskander ballistic missile was probably used,” the Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office said. “One of the rockets hit a two-story building, which led to its destruction. Neighboring houses were damaged.” The city has been targeted throughout the war, including several times in the past week. As survivor Valentina Mirgorodskaya patted a cut on her cheek, first responders cautiously surveyed the building destroyed in Saturday’s strike. Mykolayiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych reported on Telegram that six Russian missiles were fired at his city in southern Ukraine near the Black Sea, but caused no casualties. “Only on this day, Russia hit Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Kriviy Rih, villages in the Zaporizhia region,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address. “He hit populated areas, completely consciously and deliberately… For days without end, the brutal blows of Russian artillery… do not stop. Such acts of terrorism can only be stopped by weapons — modern and powerful.” Russian defense officials claimed on Saturday that their forces destroyed a hangar housing US howitzers in the Donetsk region, near the town of Chasiv Yar. There was no immediate response from Ukraine. In other developments on Saturday:
Zelensky fired several ambassadors, including Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, who had been an outspoken supporter of Kiev’s cause but also ruffled feathers in Berlin. He was persistently critical of Germany’s perceived slowness in providing heavy weapons. He also faced criticism for an interview in which he defended Stepan Bandera, a controversial World War II-era Ukrainian nationalist. Ukraine’s foreign ministry issued a statement saying Melnyk was speaking only for himself. Zelensky said the ambassador dismissals were part of a routine rotation. Melnyk has served in the position since 2015. Ukraine’s national police have announced that they are launching a criminal investigation into the alleged destruction of crops by the Russian military in the southern Kherson region. In a Telegram post, he accused Russian troops of not allowing residents to put out fires in fields and otherwise sabotaging the harvest. The British Ministry of Defense said Russian forces in Ukraine are now armed with “obsolete or unsuitable equipment”, including MT-LB armored vehicles that have been removed from long-term storage and do not provide the same protection as modern tanks. “While MT-LBS were previously in service in support roles on both sides, Russia has long considered them unsuitable for most front-line infantry transport roles,” the British ministry said on Twitter. Ukraine’s sports minister, Vadym Gutzeit, said 100 Ukrainian athletes and coaches were killed either on the battlefield or by Russian shelling, while 22 were captured by Russian forces. In a Facebook post, Gutzeit said more than 3,000 athletes are now in uniform.
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Associated Press reporters across Ukraine contributed. ——
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