Russia, on the offensive against a Ukraine lacking ammunition, claimed the conquest of a new village on Saturday in an important sector of the front, near the key town of Chassiv Iar. Ukraine, which has been struggling since its failed offensive in the summer of 2023, lacks men and weapons and begs the West to speed up military aid, blocked in the United States and late on the European side. . The capture of the village of Ivanviské announced by Russian forces on Saturday comes the day after an attack on a Moscow concert hall claimed by the Islamic State (IS) which left 133 dead. The Russian authorities mentioned a Ukrainian lead, but did not mention the jihadist group.
The Ukrainian village of Ivanivské is located between Bakhmout, a town destroyed and occupied by Russia since May 2023, and Chassiv Iar, which Moscow wants to conquer. If Russian forces succeeded, they could intensify their attacks against Kramatorsk, a large city in Donbass controlled by kyiv and targeted more and more often by Russian bombings. Further south, the Russian army claimed Thursday the capture of another village near Avdiïvka, a ruined town conquered in February by Moscow.
The main information to remember:
- Ukraine and Russia again carried out reciprocal air attacks overnight from Friday to Saturday
- Two civilians killed and seven others injured in drone attack and strikes in Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine
- Kharkiv, still partially deprived of electricity after strikes the day before, was targeted again
- Russia, on the offensive against a Ukraine lacking ammunition, claimed the conquest of a new village on Saturday in an important sector of the front, near the key town of Chassiv Iar
Belgorod under rockets
A restless night which punctuated the fighting between Ukraine and Russia between Friday and Saturday. Two civilians were killed and seven others injured during a drone attack and strikes in the Russian region of Belgorod, which borders Ukraine, the regional governor said. Ukraine was targeted by 34 Shahed explosive drones, 31 of which were shot down. Four people were injured in Kharkiv, a city with a pre-war population of 1.5 million near the Russian border.
“The morning was difficult,” the governor of the Russian region of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, also said on Telegram. According to him, two districts in his region were attacked by Ukrainian drones. One of these attacks, which occurred in the Cherniansky district, left one civilian dead and two injured. Belgorod, the regional capital, was targeted on Saturday morning by rocket strikes which damaged several residential buildings. In one building, three balconies collapsed, killing a man who lived in one of the apartments.
Vyacheslav Gladkov published a photo of a deformed gray brick building with broken windows and the debris of three balconies in front. According to him, five other people were injured and hospitalized. The Russian Defense Ministry, for its part, indicated that it had destroyed eleven rockets fired by Vampire systems coming from Ukraine above the Belgorod region.
Kharkiv in the dark
The region has been the target of numerous attacks for several weeks, but they have increased in the run-up to the presidential election in mid-March, won by Vladimir Putin in the absence of any opposition, which was eradicated by the repression. kyiv, faced with the Russian invasion and daily bombings of its cities for two years, has promised to respond by bringing the fighting to Russian soil.
Russia responded Friday with an escalation of its own strikes against Ukraine, firing dozens of missiles and launching dozens of explosive drones to destroy Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. The country’s second city, Kharkiv, was plunged into darkness on Friday and, on Saturday morning, some 275,000 people were still without electricity, according to Governor Oleg Synegoubov.
“Engineers will work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to eliminate the consequences of the bombing,” he added. The city was, however, attacked again during the night from Friday to Saturday by Russian drones. A municipal building was struck first and then again when emergency services arrived on site. Two rescuers and a police officer were then injured. An 18-year-old was also injured, according to the governor.
In the evening in Kharkiv, residents told AFP that they had lost the habit of power cuts of this magnitude, which led to the shutdown of water and heating, whose distribution systems run on electricity. . “We are used to bombings, they are quite frequent, (but) there hasn’t been a power outage for a long time,” explains Bogdan Kuriashiy, 21.
Urgent need for anti-aircraft systems
Ukraine experienced a massive bombing campaign against its electrical installations during the winter of 2022 and 2023, but this year these infrastructures were rather spared, due to stronger anti-aircraft defenses. Friday’s strikes, however, demonstrated that Ukraine was far from safe and the authorities insisted they urgently needed anti-aircraft systems and munitions.
However, American aid, wanted by Democratic President Joe Biden, has been blocked for months in Congress by the Republican camp supporting his predecessor in the White House Donald Trump. European aid, for its part, has fallen far behind schedule. Russia, better armed, has taken the initiative on the front since the fall of 2023 and the failure of Kiev’s summer counter-offensive, and is gaining ground, despite heavy losses particularly in the east, near the town of Avdiïvka, conquered by the Russian occupiers in February.