KYIV, Ukraine –
Russian forces are raising “real hell” in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, despite estimates that they have taken an operational pause, a regional governor said on Saturday, while another Ukrainian official urged people in Russian-occupied southern regions to evacuate quickly “by all possible means ” before a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Deadly Russian shelling has been reported in eastern and southern Ukraine.
The governor of the eastern Luhansk region, Sergi Haidai, said Russia had launched more than 20 artillery, mortar and rocket strikes on the region overnight and its forces were pushing towards the border with Donetsk region.
“We are trying to contain the armed formations of the Russians along the entire front line,” Haydai wrote on Telegram.
Last week, Russia captured the last major stronghold of the Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk, the city of Lisichansk. Analysts predicted that Moscow’s troops would likely take some time to rearm and regroup.
But “so far, there has been no operational pause announced by the enemy. They are still attacking and shelling our lands with the same intensity as before,” Haiday said. He later said that the Russian bombardment of Luhansk had stopped because Ukrainian forces had destroyed ammunition depots and barracks used by the Russians.
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk called on residents of the Russian-controlled territories in the south to evacuate quickly so that occupation forces cannot use them as human shields during a Ukrainian counter-offensive.
“You have to find a way to leave because our armed forces are coming to de-occupy,” she said. “There’s going to be a huge fight.”
Speaking at a press conference late Friday, Vereshchuk said an attempt to evacuate civilians to parts of Kherson and Zaporozhye regions was underway. She declined to elaborate, citing safety.
It was not clear how civilians are expected to safely leave the Russian-held areas as rocket strikes and artillery fire continue in surrounding areas, whether they will be allowed to leave or even heed the government’s call.
The death toll in the war continues to rise.
Five people were killed and eight others wounded in Russian shelling on Friday in Siversk and Semigoria in Donetsk region, its governor, Pavlo Kirilenko, wrote on Telegram on Saturday.
In the city of Slavyansk, named as the next likely target of the Russian offensive, rescuers pulled a 40-year-old man from the rubble of a building destroyed by shelling on Saturday. Kirilenko said there were many people under the debris.
Russian rockets also killed two people and wounded three others on Saturday in the southern city of Kryvyi Rih, according to regional authorities.
“They deliberately targeted residential areas,” Valentin Reznichenko, governor of the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, said on Telegram. Kryvyi Rih mayor Alexander Vilkul said on Facebook that cluster munitions were used and urged residents not to approach unknown objects on the streets. More explosions were reported Saturday night.
Kryvyi Rih is the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, who visited Friday to meet with Vilkul and the brigadier general who commands troops in the region. Zelenskiy’s office said he was briefed on the “building of defense structures”, support for troops, delivery of food and medicine to the city and assistance given to people who fled to Kryvyi Rih after being evicted from their homes you are elsewhere in Ukraine.
In northeastern Ukraine, a Russian missile strike on Saturday hit the center of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, injuring six people, including a 12-year-old girl, authorities said.
“An Iskander ballistic missile was probably used,” the Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office said. “One of the missiles hit a two-story building, causing its destruction. Neighboring houses were damaged.”
The city has been targeted throughout the war, including several times in the past week. As survivor Valentina Mirgorodksaya nursed a gash on her cheek, first responders cautiously surveyed the building destroyed in Saturday’s strike.
Nikolaev Mayor Oleksandr Senkevich said on Telegram that six Russian missiles were fired at his city in southern Ukraine near the Black Sea, but caused no casualties.
“On this day alone, Russia hit Nikolaev, Kharkiv, Kryvyi Rih, villages in the Zaporozhye region,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address. “It strikes residential areas, absolutely deliberately and purposefully… For days the brutal blows of the Russian artillery… do not stop. Such terrorist acts can be stopped only with modern and powerful weapons. “
Russian defense officials said on Saturday that their forces destroyed a hangar of US howitzers in the Donetsk region, near the town of Chasov Yar. There was no immediate response from Ukraine.
Other developments on Saturday:
- Zelensky fired several ambassadors, including Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk, who was an outspoken champion of Kyiv’s cause but also ruffled feathers in Berlin. He has consistently criticized Germany’s perceived slowness to provide heavy weapons. He was also criticized for an interview in which he defended Stepan Bandera, a controversial World War II-era Ukrainian nationalist. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that Melnyk was speaking only for himself. Zelensky said the dismissals of ambassadors were part of a routine rotation. Melnyk has served in the post since 2015.
- Ukraine’s national police force said it was opening a criminal investigation into alleged destruction of crops by the Russian military in the southern Kherson region. In a post on Telegram, he accused Russian troops of preventing residents from putting out fires in fields and otherwise sabotaging the harvest.
- Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Russian forces in Ukraine are now armed with “obsolete or unsuitable equipment”, including MT-LB armored vehicles removed from long-term storage, which do not provide the same protection as modern tanks. “While MT-LBS have previously been in service in support roles on both sides, Russia has long considered them unsuitable for most front-line infantry transport roles,” the British ministry said on Twitter.
- Ukraine’s Sports Minister Vadim Gutzeit said 100 Ukrainian athletes and coaches were killed on the battlefield or by Russian fire, while 22 were captured by Russian forces. In a Facebook post, Gutzeit said more than 3,000 athletes are already in uniform.
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Associated Press journalists from across Ukraine contributed.
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