Russia is preparing for the next stage of its offensive in Ukraine, a Ukrainian military official said, after Moscow said its forces would step up military operations in “all operational zones”.
As supplies of long-range weapons from the West begin to help Ukraine on the battlefield, Russian rockets and missiles are pounding cities in strikes that Kyiv says have killed dozens in recent days.
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“These are not just missile strikes from the air and the sea,” Vadim Skibitsky, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence, said late Saturday. “We are seeing shelling all along the contact line, all along the front line. Tactical aviation and attack helicopters are actively used.
“Apparently preparations are underway for the next stage of the offensive.”
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Ukraine’s military said Russia appeared to be regrouping units for an offensive on Slavyansk, a symbolically important Ukrainian-held city in the eastern Donetsk region.
0:59 ‘It’s an act of Russian terror’: Zelensky says Russian missiles kill 20 in western Ukraine ‘It’s an act of Russian terror’: Zelensky says Russian missiles kill 20 in western Ukraine
Britain’s Ministry of Defense said on Sunday that Russia was also strengthening defenses in areas it occupies in southern Ukraine following pressure from Ukrainian forces and promises by Ukrainian leaders to drive Russia out.
Ukraine says at least 40 people have been killed in Russian shelling of urban areas since Thursday as the war launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24 intensifies.
Dozens of relatives and local residents attended the funeral of four-year-old Lisa Dmitrieva in the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia on Sunday. The girl was killed in a rocket attack on downtown Vinnytsia on Thursday that killed 24 people, according to Ukrainian authorities.
Read more: War in Ukraine: Russia steps up attacks with new missile strikes
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To the south, more than 50 Russian Grad missiles hit the Dnieper River town of Nikopol, killing two people who were found in the rubble, Governor Valentin Reznichenko said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had used more than 3,000 cruise missiles so far and it was “impossible to count” the number of artillery and other strikes so far.
Zelensky fires senior officials
Meanwhile, Zelensky fired the head of Ukraine’s powerful internal security agency, Ivan Bakanov, and prosecutor general Irina Venediktova, who led efforts to prosecute Russian war crimes, saying many of their officials were cooperating with Russia.
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Zelensky said more than 60 officers from their two agencies are now working against Ukraine in Russian-occupied territories, and 651 cases of treason and cooperation have been opened against law enforcement officials.
“Such a set of crimes against the foundations of national security of the state … raises very serious questions for the relevant leaders,” Zelensky said in a post on Telegram.
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0:45 Zelensky says “significant efforts” have been made to restore global food supplies Zelensky says “significant efforts” have been made to restore global food supplies
Kyiv and the West say the conflict is an unprovoked attempt to retake a country that broke free from Moscow’s rule with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Moscow calls the invasion a “special military operation” to demilitarize its neighbor and root out nationalists, says it is using precision weapons to degrade Ukraine’s military infrastructure. Russia has repeatedly denied that it attacked civilians.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered military units to step up operations to prevent Ukrainian strikes on Russian-controlled areas, the ministry said in a statement.
READ MORE: Ukraine searches for survivors after Russian missiles hit Vinnytsia
His remarks on Saturday appeared to be a direct response to what Kyiv said was a series of successful strikes against 30 Russian logistics and munitions centers using several multiple-launch missile systems recently supplied by the West.
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The strikes are wreaking havoc on Russian supply lines and have significantly reduced Russia’s offensive capabilities, according to Ukraine’s defense ministry.
Ukrainian officials say the new US-made High Mobility Artillery Missile Systems (HIMARS) they began receiving last month allow them to hit targets in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, and other areas occupied by Russia .
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“Good morning from HIMARS,” Andriy Yermak, Ukraine’s president’s chief of staff, wrote on Telegram on Sunday alongside a video showing a large explosion in what he said was another destroyed Russian munitions depot in southern Ukraine.
On Sunday, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the refusal of Ukraine and NATO forces to recognize Moscow’s authority over Crimea posed a “systemic threat” to Russia, whose Black Sea Fleet is headquartered there.
A spokesman for the Odesa regional administration, Sergey Bratchuk, said on Telegram late Sunday that a “significant number” of Russian warships had moved from Crimea to Novorossiysk, on Russia’s Black Sea coast.
2:53 Zelensky asks G7 allies for more help Zelensky asks G7 allies for more help – June 27, 2022
Russian-backed separatists said HIMARS missiles killed two civilians and damaged a bus depot and several other buildings in Alchevsk, east of Solvyansk. Ukraine’s armed forces said they struck the bus depot because they had information that it was being used to house Russian troops.
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The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces destroyed a launch pad and a reloading vehicle of one of the HIMARS systems located near the eastern city of Pokrovsk.
Pokrovsk regional police chief Ruslan Osipenko said a residential area had been shelled by Russia with multiple rocket launchers and there were dead and wounded. He released a video of damaged homes and residents describing the attack.
(Reporting by Reuters desks; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Philippa Fletcher and Andy Sullivan; Editing by Francis Carey, Frank Jack Daniel and Daniel Wallis)
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