Fierce fighting for Donetsk
Kyiv reports heavy rocket attacks in the east
08/13/2022, 4:51 p.m
Fierce fighting continues in eastern Ukraine. The Kharkiv region in particular was heavily shelled, reports Kyiv. Ukraine and Russia also accuse each other of shelling the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
The Ukrainian military has reported new heavy Russian rocket attacks in the east of the country. The city and the region of Kharkov were heavily shelled, the Ukrainian authorities said. Three people, including a 13-year-old boy, were injured in the Kharkiv region and taken to the hospital, it said.
In the Zaporizhia region, authorities warned people not to take to the streets because Russian troops would fire in the direction of the nuclear power plant. Russia has occupied Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. The information provided by the was not independently verifiable.
Moscow, in turn, accuses the Ukrainian troops of shelling the power plant. Internationally, there is great concern about a possible nuclear incident. Despite the fighting in the region, experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have been trying for weeks to gain access to the nuclear power plant.
In its situation report, the Ministry of Defense in Moscow confirmed the rocket and artillery fire in the Kharkiv and Cherson regions, among other places. The focus was therefore still on the Donetsk region, which is to be completely wrested from Ukrainian control as Moscow’s next target in the course of the Russian war of aggression. The Donetsk suburb of Pisky in the northwest of the city has now been taken, it said. So far, there has been no confirmation from the Ukrainian side.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and currently occupies around a fifth of the neighboring country, including the Crimea peninsula annexed in 2014, including the Luhansk and Cherson regions and large parts of the Zaporizhia region. Ukraine is urgently demanding heavy weapons from the West to stop the Russian advance and retake territories.