Sweden promises more military aid to Kyiv during a visit by Ukraine’s foreign minister
Ukrainian military forces has continued to prevent Russian attempts to break through around the strategic city of Bakhmut to expand control over the Donbas region.
After taking Syevyerodonetsk and Lysychansk a few weeks ago, Russian forces have focused on the key city of Bakhmut.
The town — which had an estimated 70,000 residents before Russia launched its unprovoked full-scale invasion on February 24 — was shelled again on August 27, as were nearby Soldedar and Zaitseve, according to a Ukrainian military report.
It said Ukraine halted the advances near two other major cities, Slovyansk and Kramatorsk.
An RFE/RL correspondent reporting from Slovyansk posted a video of the aftermath of the overnight Russian shelling, showing destroyed and charred balconies and shattered windows in a five-story building. Nearby buildings also sustained damage.
No casualties were reported in the Slovyansk attack, our correspondent reported.
The Ukrainian military also said its forces holding out in the coal-producing town of Avdiyivka had managed to repel a Russian assault despite enemy artillery and airstrikes.
Near the central southern city of Kherson, which has been occupied by Russian forces since the start of the war, Ukrainian troops said they attacked three Russian command posts and at least two ammunition depots in the region.
The Ukrainian army said its forces killed 11 Russian soldiers and destroyed 11 rocket launchers, three armored vehicles and a self-propelled howitzer.
Details could not be immediately verified, but Russian-appointed head of administration Volodymyr Leontyev confirmed the Ukrainian attacks to Russian news agencies, saying the town of Nova Kakhovka had been shelled four times.
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Shelling and heavy artillery fire near towns and a town near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant were also reported, as fears remained that nearby fighting could damage Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and cause a radiation leak.
Heavy gunfire overnight left parts of Nikopol without electricity, regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said.
Reznichenko said a 67-year-old woman was killed and four people were wounded by Russian shelling and that houses, power lines and gas lines had been damaged.
Rocket attacks damaged a dozen homes in Marhanets, according to Yevhen Yevtushenko, head of administration for the district that includes the city of about 45,000 residents.
The city of Zaporizhzhya, about 40 kilometers upriver from the nuclear power plant, also caught fire overnight, injuring two people, city council member Anatoliy Kurtev told AP.
Ukrainian authorities began distributing iodine tablets to residents near the Zaporizhzhya facility to provide protection against potential radiation poisoning in the event of a disaster at the facility.
Elsewhere, the Ukrainian mayor of occupied Melitopol said Ukrainian military forces shelled a Russian military base in the city overnight.
At the same time, the British Ministry of Defense has cast doubt on how Russia will be able to increase its armed forces or whether any such enhanced force will increase its combat power in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last week signed a decree to increase the size of Russia’s armed forces to 2.04 million from 1.9 million as the war in Ukraine enters its seventh month.
In its regular update on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the British Ministry of Defense said it was not clear whether this would be achieved by recruiting more volunteers or by increasing conscription.
Either way, it likely wouldn’t have much of an impact on the war in Ukraine given “Russia has lost tens of thousands of troops; very few new contract military are being recruited; and conscripts are technically not required to serve outside Russian territory.” the ministry said on Twitter on August 28.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is scheduled to travel to Sweden on August 29, before heading to the Czech Republic the following day as Kyiv looks to bolster international support and push for further sanctions to pressure Moscow.
While in Prague, he will attend an informal meeting with EU foreign ministers to discuss new sanctions against Russia and a possible EU-wide visa ban for Russian touristsa move that is gaining growing support from member states such as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Finland, all of which share a border with Russian territory.