DHeavy fighting for Severodonetsk, in eastern Ukraine, continued on Saturday. The Ukrainian general staff announced that Russia had once again assembled more troops than before. Most of the Russian forces are already deployed there. The aim behind this is obviously to completely conquer Ukraine’s last bastion in the Luhansk region. As the General Staff further reports, Russia continued to use artillery in its attacks on the industrial city to wear down the resistance of the remaining defenders.
Further statements from the Ukrainian side indicated that the Russian army appears to be trying to isolate the Severodonetsk defenders. The Ukrainian governor of Luhansk, Serhiy Hajday, said on television that Russian soldiers were blowing up bridges leading to the industrial city. Despite this, the Severodonetsk defenders held their ground. Ukrainian units even managed to push back Russian soldiers in several places. The day before, Hajdaj said the city was now almost entirely under Russian control. But it is too early to write them off. “The city stands firm.”
The Ukrainian general staff reported another attempt to seal off an important access road behind Severodonetsk. Accordingly, Russian troops are said to have tried to advance into the city of Bakhmut. It is about an hour’s drive south-west of Severodonetsk in the Donetsk region. The general staff announced that the attack had been repelled and that the Russian troops had withdrawn.
The Russian military claimed on Saturday that they had hit an operationally important target. It is said to have been a center where Ukrainian soldiers were trained in western artillery technology. The strike against the training center of the Ukrainian armed forces near Stetskivka in the Sumy region was carried out “with high-precision air-to-surface missiles”, said the spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov. There soldiers were taught how to handle the American howitzer M777. Artillery plays a key role in the battle for Donbass. Ukraine hopes that the deliveries of western howitzers and, increasingly, rocket launchers will be able to hold back the Russian offensive.
The Ukrainian side initially did not confirm the attack on the training center, nor did they confirm the attack on an alleged “camp of foreign mercenaries” in the Odessa area, which Russia also claimed was responsible for. However, a Ukrainian volunteer brigade dubbed the International Defense Legion said four foreign volunteers had been killed, including a German. No information was given about the location or the circumstances.
Kyiv: Ukrainian and Russian losses are currently balanced
According to Russian information on Saturday morning, their own air force is said to have hit more than 400 Ukrainian soldiers, 20 battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, around a dozen artillery pieces and rocket launchers and around 30 vehicles in the past 24 hours. The Russian air defense is also said to have shot down a Ukrainian transport plane. The information cannot be verified independently, just like that of the Ukrainian side.
The British Ministry of Defense said in its daily update on Twitter on Saturday, citing military intelligence findings, that Russian Air Force activity remained high. Fighter aircraft would use both guided and unguided munitions. Along with the use of artillery, the airstrikes were a key factor in the Russian side’s recent tactical gains in Donbass.
The Ukrainian presidential administration assumes that the Ukrainian and Russian daily losses are roughly equal. This is what Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podoliak said to the opposition Russian online portal Medusa on Friday evening. The total losses on the Russian side, which also includes the massive losses in the first weeks of the war, especially around Kyiv, were estimated by Podoliak at 80,000 people; it should not only have included those who died, but also those who were wounded and missing. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry on Saturday put the number of Russian casualties at 31,050 – a hundred more than the previous day. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently said that between 50 and 100 soldiers were currently being killed on the Ukrainian side every day.