Local residents watch smoke rise after shelling in Donetsk, Ukraine, on July 7. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)
More than forty towns and villages in Donbass have been attacked in the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian army said, acknowledging the “partial success” of Russia’s attempt to advance on one front.
The General Staff said Russian forces were now trying to advance west from the Luhansk-Donetsk border towards the towns of Bakhmut and Slavyansk, and “the enemy is advancing in the direction of Verkhnokamyansk with partial success.” The Russians are also advancing “in the area of the Spirne settlement,” it added.
Verkhnokamianske and Spirne are adjacent to the main highway leading west from the city of Lisichansk, which fell last week.
The Ukrainians also said that “the occupiers are advancing in the direction of Vesela Dolina”, which is near Bakhmut.
The General Staff said the Russians used artillery, mortars, multiple launch missile systems and airstrikes as they tried to eliminate Ukrainian defenses.
In its analysis of the military situation on Friday, the international security consultancy Cavell Group tweeted: “Fighting continues to be heavy on many of the roads and settlements around Siversk now with heavy artillery being exchanged in that region as well. The situation here is very volatile as Russia pushes forces to the west.” Siversk is the last largest town on the roads west to Slavyansk and Kramatorsk.
Cavell added: “A similar situation is occurring towards Bakhmut, with Russia making slow gains against strong resistance, but slowly securing more of the highway to Lisichansk and closing in on the defenses of Bakhmut.”
The Institute for the Study of War said: “Russian forces still conducted limited ground offensives and air, artillery and missile strikes on all axes on July 7 and are likely to continue to be limited to small-scale offensive actions as they rebuild forces and set the stage for more significant advance’.
As well as trying to advance west of the border with Luhansk, the Russians are maintaining artillery fire on settlements north of Slavyansk, with the Ukrainian General Staff saying “our defenders inflicted losses on the enemy during his next attempt to advance and pushed back the invaders back near Bogorodichno, “about 20 kilometers north of the city.
Sergey Khaidai, head of the military administration of Luhansk Oblast, said that “in order to reach the administrative border of Luhansk Oblast, the Russians are destroying the surrounding villages with artillery…they keep firing all kinds of heavy weapons” at several villages that not yet under their control.
“But our armed forces are holding the fort,” Heyday said, noting that resistance continued along the regional border.
Elsewhere, Ukraine’s general staff reported fresh artillery attacks on settlements north of Kharkiv, and local authorities said there were civilian casualties from a rocket attack on the city’s eastern outskirts.
Regional military administrations reported incoming fire both in Sumy, in the north, and against Kriviy Rog, in the south, without causing casualties.
Also in the south, Russian forces continued to shell the regions of Kherson and Nikolaev in an attempt to regain recently lost territory, according to regional administrations, and several villages were on the “brink of destruction”.
Cavell Group assessed that “north of Kherson yesterday there were phases of intense artillery shelling [Thursday], but without significant changes in place. Around the Ukrainian city of Kherson [forces] fired coordinated artillery at some Russian fortified defensive positions.”
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