Russia has reportedly taken control of two additional villages in eastern Ukraine, according to Moscow’s military. The villages, Novooleksandrivka and Spirne, are part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region which has been witnessing invasive advances from Russia’s troops for months now. This has resulted in Kyiv’s armed forces, despite being outnumbered and under-equipped in certain areas, fighting relentlessly.
In response to recent rocket attacks that resulted in the loss of at least 14 civilian lives and injured many over the weekend, Kyiv’s urgent need for advanced air defence systems and long-range missile complexes has risen.
No immediate statement was made by Ukraine concerning Russia’s occupation claims. The rocket attack on Vilnyansk, a town positioned close to the front line in southeastern Ukraine and about 30km away from Zaporizhzhia, left seven people dead, including three children, and wounded another 38 this Saturday afternoon.
As per Vadym Filashkin, Donetsk’s regional governor, over the prior 24 hours, seven deaths and 14 injuries occurred due to Russia’s missile and artillery attacks on towns and villages clustered in the province. The fight has been fierce near Pokrovsk and Chasiv Yar, towns located outside Bakhmut and Avdiivka, which are largely ruined and Russian-occupied.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned these daily attacks on their cities and communities and proposed countermeasures such as destroying terrorists at their origin, eliminating Russian missile launchers, and enhancing Ukraine’s modern air defence system. He emphasized on the cost of any delays in such decisions being human lives.
He also accused Russia of deploying more than 800 guided aerial bombs against Ukraine within just a week, targeting their cities, communities and their normal way of life. He urged for adequate forces to terminate the carriers of these bombs, particularly Russian warplanes.
This summer, Ukraine anticipates the arrival of its first batch of F-16 fighter jets from western allies. The preparation and training of these jets along with Ukrainian pilots and ground crew has been underway for quite a few months.
In recent times, forces from Kyiv have been employing explosive drones and missiles sourced from western nations to target Russian airfields and air defence structures within entrapped Ukraine and Russia proper. Their strategy, to all appearances, is to destabilise Russia’s aerial fortifications prior to the F-16s arrival.
On Sunday, Russia claimed the interception and destruction of 36 drones across six of its territories. These drones were connected to an increasing number of daily Ukrainian attacks on oil storage facilities, refineries and various other sections of the energy infrastructure. The strikes are aimed at targets located hundreds of kilometres from Ukraine’s border.
Unveiling a significant advancement, the Ukrainian state-owned armaments company, Ukroboronprom’s general director, Herman Smetanin, announced that Ukraine has innovated and initiated large-scale production of their very own long-range attack drones. He added that these drones are used for precision strikes on strategic enemy targets located more than a 1,000km away.
Russia, in retaliation, hasn’t pulled back from targeting Ukrainian installations, dealing severe blows to the energy grid in recent times; such actions have obliterated half of Ukraine’s electrical production capacity. The destruction has racked up damage to the tune of billions of euros, while posing a serious concern for the dependability of power supplies in the forthcoming winter.
Reports came in on Sunday from Kyiv’s military stating that Russia staged attacks on eight different Ukrainian regions in the last 24 hours. A wide arsenal of weaponry, including tanks, air-bombings, missiles, and mortars, was used to strike at 106 settlements and 181 infrastructural facilities.
On Saturday, Belarus revealed that it is fortifying its aerial defences along its Ukrainian border. The country is responding defensively to what it perceives as potential provocations in its airspace. This followed its ally, Russia’s accusation aimed at the United States for allegedly stirring unrest with drone activities in the vicinity of Crimea in the Black Sea, which Russia currently occupies.