The official, Oleksandr Motuzianyk, singled out on Friday the role played by US-made HIMARS missile systems, one of several types of long-range weapons provided by the West to help Ukraine fight back against Russia. “Over the past few weeks, more than 30 of the enemy’s military logistics facilities have been destroyed, as a result of which the offensive potential of the Russian forces has been significantly reduced,” Motuzianik said on national television. Russia, which invaded Ukraine on February 24, has seized a swath of territory in southern Ukraine and used its artillery dominance in the east to gradually make territorial gains, eventually seizing the Luhansk region. [Al Jazeera] But a top Ukrainian general said Thursday that Russia had not gained a single meter of ground in the past week and that Ukrainian rocket attacks were disrupting Russian supply lines, forcing Moscow to keep its munitions further back from the front lines. Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify the claims by Ukrainian officials. HIMARS have a longer range and are more accurate than Ukraine’s Soviet-era artillery, allowing Ukrainian forces to strike Russian targets previously unreachable with more conventional weapons. Ukraine’s defense minister also said on Friday that Kyiv had received a first shipment of M270 multiple missile launch systems, without specifying which country provided them. Russia has criticized the United States and the United Kingdom for helping to train Ukraine’s armed forces, calling it part of NATO’s “hybrid war” against Moscow. Moscow said Washington is also providing Ukraine with trainers to help use HIMARS. Kyiv said this week that its forces had carried out attacks on Russian military infrastructure in a city deep inside Russian-held territory in southern Ukraine.
Battle in Donetsk
Moscow-backed separatists said on Friday they were closing in on their next target – the city of Shiversk – after wresting control of the sister cities of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk two weeks ago. Donetsk separatist official Daniil Versonov said rebel fighters were “clearing” the eastern districts of Shiversk in small groups. An attack on Friday hit the main square in Kramatorsk, a large city and administrative center of Donbas, where the city hall and cultural center are located. Authorities said no one was injured since it happened during the curfew. Genya, a 72-year-old resident of Kramatorsk, described seeing from his balcony “something was burning in the middle of the square and then it exploded.” Civilians gather their personal belongings from the rubble after their home was hit by a missile in Shiversk, Ukraine [File: Narciso Contreras, Anadolu Agency] Russia’s defense ministry also said Thursday’s cruise missile attack on the city of Vinnytsia – which killed 23 civilians including children – targeted a building where top officials from Ukraine’s armed forces were meeting with foreign arms suppliers. Ukraine denied a military target was hit, saying the attack hit a cultural center used by retired veterans and killed only civilians.
A captive aide dies
Also on Friday, an official from the self-proclaimed pro-Russian Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) announced the death of British citizen Paul Urey, 45. Daria Morozova, the human rights ombudsman for the Moscow-backed separatist leadership in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, said a British “mercenary”, whom she named Urey, died in captivity on Sunday. He said he died of chronic illness and stress. A British charity working on his case confirmed that Urey’s family had been informed of his death by British officials. The UK summoned Russian ambassador Andrei Kelin on Friday to express its “deep concern” over reports of Urey’s death. UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Urey “was in Ukraine to try to help the Ukrainian people in the face of an unprovoked Russian invasion”, echoing claims by NGOs that he was not a combatant. Urey was arrested in April at a checkpoint near Zaporizhzhia, about 470 kilometers (290 miles) southeast of Kiev, along with another Briton, Dylan Healy. The two men were operating alone in the war zone, helping to evacuate civilians. Two other British citizens and a Moroccan, captured while fighting for Ukraine, have been sentenced to death in the DRC for alleged mercenary activities.
