Smoke rises above a burning oil depot on the outskirts of Donetsk, Ukraine, May 4. (Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters)
The Ukrainian military said on Wednesday that despite heavy artillery fire on a number of fronts, Russian forces have made little progress towards securing all areas of Luhansk and Donetsk in the east.
On Tuesday, US Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Michael Carpenter said the United States had “very credible” intelligence reports that Russia would try to annex the Donetsk and Luhansk regions “sometime in mid-May.”
In its latest operational update, the military said Russia’s missile attacks on Tuesday night were intended to destroy transport infrastructure. The cruise missiles hit at least half a dozen targets in central and western Ukraine, which appears to be an attempt to prevent the transit of military equipment and supplies.
Ukraine’s railway system says more than 40 trains have been delayed since the attacks.
One of the strikes was in the Transcarpathian region, near the Slovak border, for the first time since the invasion began.
Viktor Mikita, head of the Transcarpathian regional military administration, said a populated area had been hit but no one was injured and work was under way to restore utilities.
Tens of thousands of displaced Ukrainians have moved east from the Transcarpathian region.
An update from Ukraine’s General Staff said there were few signs that Russian ground forces were preparing to move, but that more parts of Russia’s Central Military District had been deployed in the border areas of Russia’s Bryansk Oblast, a neighbor of northeastern Ukraine.
The General Staff said most of the offensive continued to be in the form of artillery attacks. It said that the ground offensive against Dovhenke had failed. Russian forces are trying to push south of the Kharkiv region in an attempt to encircle Ukrainian forces defending the Donetsk region, but with limited success, the statement said.
CNN could not confirm the details of the update of the Ukrainian military.
The military leadership has indeed acknowledged that the Russians are advancing towards the village of Shandrigolovo, where Ukrainian troops are trying to protect the approaches to the cities of Liman and Slavyansk in the Donetsk region. In recent weeks, the Russian military has carried out multiple military strikes on the Lyman, including its railway infrastructure.
“The enemy has strengthened the troop group and strengthened air reconnaissance” in the Liman area, according to the update.
CNN has geolocated a video from the same area showing Russian armor destroyed by Ukrainian fire in recent days.
The military also reported that fighting continued in the Zaporozhye region, where Russian forces had failed to advance on the town of Orikhov.
Sergei Haidai, head of the Luhansk region’s military administration, said rocket and bomb attacks continued against the cities of Severodonetsk, Rubezhne and Lisichansk. Two people had died. He said fighting continued in the town of Popasna. CNN geolocated a video showing intense street fighting among the city’s ruins.
“The Russians are not just destroying Popasna. They are removing it from the map of Luhansk region, “Haidai said.
In neighboring Donetsk, Pavlo Kirilenko, head of the Donetsk regional military administration, said the towns of Avdievka and Mariinka were bombed again on Wednesday morning.
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