Ukrainian troops on Wednesday recaptured the city of Nursery near Kharkov in the northeastern part of the country, the latest in a series of victories that has put Ukrainian troops miles from the Russian border.
The liberation of Nursery, a town about 15 miles from Russia’s border, comes a day after Ukrainian authorities announced the seizure of four other villages outside Kharkov.
The combined counterattacks effectively pushed Russian artillery out of the reach of Ukraine’s second-largest city, while putting pressure on Russia’s border and supply lines.
“We are succeeding in the direction of Kharkov, where we are constantly repelling the enemy and liberating settlements,” said on Wednesday Brigadier General Alexei Khromov, deputy chief of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of Ukraine.
Ukraine has also returned to the Battle of Snake Island, a Black Sea base taken at the start of the war, in which Ukrainian troops told Russian cruiser Moscow to “go [it]myself.”
A vehicle is in ruins after Russian forces attacked Orikhov in eastern Ukraine. DIMITAR DILKOF / AFP via Getty Images
Ukrainian forces are targeting Russian air defenses on the island, as are Russian supply ships in a bid to thwart Russia’s attempt to control Ukraine’s coast, according to the British Ministry of Defense.
Ukrainian authorities also said they had shot down a cruise missile aimed at the historic port of Odessa, which has been subjected to heavy Russian bombing in recent days.
Russian rockets did fall outside Zaporozhye, the city on the Dnieper River, where many residents of the ruined city of Mariupol fled. There were no immediate reports of casualties after the attack.
Russian attacks within Mariupol continued as recent Ukrainian defenders insisted on extraction.
Map of Ukraine against the background of the Russian invasion. New York Post
The news comes as:
- Senior US intelligence officials warn that Russia may turn to increasingly “unpredictable and drastic” tactics in its war against Ukraine – with the ever-present threat of nuclear war against the West.
- The bodies of thousands of Russian soldiers have been piled up in a pile “as tall as a man” to hide the true size of the victims, according to a wiretapped phone call from Ukraine’s security services.
- Czech President Milos Zeman has approved a request by 103 Czechs to join Ukraine’s armed forces to help them fight Russian aggression. Czech citizens are usually banned from serving in foreign armies, a crime punishable by up to five years in prison.
Drone footage captures Snake Island in Ukraine. Ukrainian Land Forces / Reuters
Ukraine, meanwhile, announced plans Wednesday for its first war crimes trial against a captured Russian soldier.
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Irina Venediktov has announced charges against 21-year-old Russian Sergeant Vadin Shishimarin for allegedly shooting an unarmed 62-year-old civilian who was riding a bicycle in late February, four days after the war began.
Under Ukrainian law, Shishimarin could face up to 15 years in prison.
The Prosecutor General’s Office said it was investigating more than 10,700 allegations of Russian war crimes and had identified more than 600 suspects.
In the east, the operator of Ukraine’s natural gas pipeline cut off the flow of Russian gas to Western Europe, claiming that Russian-backed separatist forces in Donbass were sucking up supplies. The shutdown has been the most drastic impact on the flow of Russian energy in Europe since the start of the war.
With postal wires
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