(RFE/RL) — The Ukrainian military said Russia launched dozens of missiles and air strikes during the day on May 18 after a barrage of missile and drone strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities overnight.The General Staff of the Armed Forces reported in its evening briefing that Russian troops carried out 36 missile and 23 air strikes during the day, as well as about 30 attacks from rocket systems on positions of Ukrainian troops and populated areas.
The General Staff warned that the probability missile and air strikes throughout Ukraine remains high, but the main fighting is still taking place in the eastern region of Donetsk.
“The adversary will continue to focus its main efforts on the Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiyivka, and Maryinka areas. During the day, 17 combat clashes took place on those sections of the front, the hottest battles are being fought for Bakhmut and Maryinka,” the General Staff reported.
Russia attacked Bakhmut all day after strengthening its grouping there by bringing most of its reserves, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said.
“All the attacks were repelled by our defenders,” she said on Telegram.
Ukraine’s forces advanced 500 meters in the north and in some areas in the south by 1 kilometer, she added.
“The defense of Bakhmut and its outskirts is meeting its military objectives,” she said. “As of now, we control the southwestern part of Bakhmut.”
Yevgeny Prigozhin says his forces inside Bakhmut had advanced up to 400 meters. “We’re pushing Bakhmut all the way to the end,” he said on Telegram.
Prigozhin said his forces’ flanks remained under pressure and speculated that holding Bakhmut is part of Ukraine’s counteroffensive plan.
Bakhmut has been the epicenter of hostilities for months. Russian forces are trying to push the Ukrainian military out of the city, while Ukrainian military commanders say the resistance of the Ukrainian forces there has prevented the Russian forces from intensifying their actions elsewhere.
Serhiy Cherevaty, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Eastern Group of Forces, said Ukrainian troops continue to advance on the flanks of the city of Bakhmut.
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Ukraine has already used British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles on the battlefield. Wallace said the missiles allow the Ukrainians to hit Russian command centers that were moved back when Ukraine began deploying U.S.-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS).
The Pentagon said on May 18 that a Patriot missile battery damaged by a Russian missile barrage against Kyiv has been fixed.
“One Patriot system was damaged, but it has now been fixed and is fully back and operational,” said Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the Patriot system was hit overnight on May 16 by a Kinzhal hypersonic missile.
The daylong attacks by Russian forces came after multiple missile and drone strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities overnight. Officials said that the air defenses of the capital managed to shoot down all incoming projectiles. It was the ninth air attack on Kyiv since the start of the month.
In the southern Black Sea port city of Odesa, one person was killed and two others were wounded in a missile attack late on May 17, on an industrial facility.
“A powerful missile attack on Odesa took place in our area in the evening. Most of the missiles were shot down over the sea. But, unfortunately, there are victims,” Natalia Humenyuk, the head of the United Coordination Press Center of the Southern Defense Forces, said on Ukrainian television on May 18.
In Kyiv, Russia carried out a fresh attack overnight using drones and missiles, but all of them were destroyed, Ukrainian officials said May 18.
Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said Russian strategic bombers flying in from the Caspian Sea region launched cruise missiles on Ukraine.
“According to preliminary information, all enemy targets in Kyiv’s airspace were detected and destroyed,” Popko said.
Reconnaissance drones were also launched over Kyiv. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said no victims were reported. A three-hour air raid alert was declared in Kyiv overnight, and more than 7,000 people, including almost 1,000 children, sought shelter in subway stations during the alert, Kyiv Metro reported.
In Ukraine’s Crimea region, illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, rail traffic was halted between Simferopol and Sevastopol, a Moscow-installed official said on May 18. Earlier, an explosion on a local railway line was reported by the Baza Telegram channel.
Zelenskiy on May 18 signed a decree on the deoccupation and reintegration of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol covering the specifics of the return of Crimea to Ukrainian control at the level of states institutions.
Zelenskiy noted that Ukraine continues to work for the liberation of Crimea from the Russian occupiers and its full return to the state system.
He said more and more leaders and states realize that without the return of Crimea, “there will be no return of peace to international relations and the full force of international law.”
The latest Russian attacks came shortly after a deal was reached to extend an agreement to allow for the export of Ukrainian grain through the country’s Black Sea ports.
The two-month extension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative was announced on May 17 by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan one day before the deal was due to expire.
“With the efforts of our country, the support of our Russian friends, the contribution of our Ukrainian friends, it was decided to prolong the Black Sea grain deal for two more months,” Erdogan said.
Russia agreed not to block ships from leaving two Ukrainian harbors, Erdogan said, expressing his hope that the deal would be “beneficial for all the parties.”
Erdogan’s announcement came amid threats from Russia to quit the pact over obstacles to its grain and fertilizer exports.
No comments:
Post a Comment