Top Ukrainian commander sees new assault on key eastern city
June 28 (Reuters) - Ukraine's top commander said on Saturday that his forces faced a new onslaught against a key city on the eastern front of its war against Russia, while Moscow said it was making progress in another sector farther southwest.
After their initial failed advance on the capital Kyiv in the first weeks after the February 2022 invasion, Russian troops have focused on capturing all of Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. The city of Kostiantynivka has been a major target.
Ukrainian forces have for months defended the city against fierce assaults, with the regional governor urging remaining residents this week to evacuate as infrastructure breaks down.
Top Ukrainian commander Oleksander Syrskyi, writing on Telegram on Saturday, said the area around Kostiantynivka was gripped by heavy fighting.
"The enemy is surging towards Kostiantynivka, but apart from sustaining numerous losses, has achieved nothing," Syrskyi said.
"The aggressor is trying to break through our defences and advance along three operating sectors."
A spokesman for Ukrainian forces in the east, Viktor Trehubov, told the Ukrinform news agency that Kostiantynivka and the city of Pokrovsk to the west were "the main arena of battles and the Kremlin's strategic ambitions".
Syrskyi also said that Ukrainian forces had withstood in the past week a powerful attack near the village of Yablunivka in northeastern Sumy region, where Russian forces have been trying to establish a buffer zone inside the Ukrainian border.
Russia's Defence Ministry, in a report earlier in the day, said Moscow's forces had seized the village of Chervona Zirka -- further southwest, near the administrative border of Dnipropetrovsk region.
Russia's slow advance through eastern Ukraine, with Moscow claiming a string of villages day after day, has resulted in destruction of major cities and infrastructure.
Moscow has insisted that progress towards a settlement of the 40-month-old war depends on Ukraine recognising Moscow's control over four Ukrainian regions -- Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
Russian forces control about one-fifth of Ukraine's territory, though they do not fully hold any of the four regions.
Moscow has said in recent weeks that its troops have made advances in areas adjacent to Dnipropetrovsk region, which lies next to both Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions. Ukrainian officials have denied those reports.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Chechen leader says Putin congratulated him on son's wedding
June 29 (Reuters) - The head of Russia's Caucasus region of Chechnya, a fervent supporter of Moscow's war in Ukraine, said Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin telephoned him on Saturday to congratulate him on his son's wedding. Ramzan Kadyrov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said Putin "personally congratulated me ... on this important event and offered his warmest words of congratulation." Kadyrov said he was particularly touched that Putin had found the time to call "despite being so colossally busy with matters of state. This is a very dear thing." Kadyrov has led Chechnya, a mountainous Muslim region in southern Russia that tried to break away from Moscow in wars that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, since 2007. He has sent large contingents of troops to boost Russian ranks in the 40-month-old war against Ukraine and in the conflict's early stages commented frequently on events on the battlefield. His son, Adam, who turns 18 in November, already holds several positions in the region's security structures. Reports from the region said he was appointed secretary of Chechnya's security council in April. He also serves as his father's top bodyguard, a trustee of Chechnya's Special Forces University, and an observer in a new army battalion.
Reuters
4 hours ago
- Reuters
Russian culture minister in North Korea praises 'unprecedented' cooperation
June 28 (Reuters) - Russian Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova arrived in North Korea on Saturday with a 125-strong delegation of performers and praised cultural cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang for achieving "unprecedented heights". Lyubimova, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said a series of concerts and lectures would take place in the North Korean capital in the coming days. Among those in the delegation were performers from the Pyatnitsky Choir and the Gzhel dance troupe. Lyubimova said that thanks to agreements clinched between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea leader Kim Jong Un "cooperation in the cultural sphere between our countries has reached unprecedented heights". Since Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Moscow and Pyongyang have drawn closer together, with the two leaders signing a treaty, including a mutual defence pact. After months of silence, North Korea and Russia have disclosed the deployment of North Korean troops and the role they played in Moscow's offensive to evict Ukrainian troops from the Kursk region.
The Sun
4 hours ago
- The Sun
NATO jets scrambled to intercept Russian spyplane as Kremlin threatens ‘direct' response to military buildup on border
GERMAN fighter jets were dramatically scrambled to intercept a Russian spy plane over the Baltic Sea. It came just hours before the Kremlin warned of a 'direct' response to NATO's growing presence on its doorstep. 8 8 Two Eurofighters roared into action on Friday after NATO radar spotted a Russian Il-20 with its transponder switched off. The plane had taken off from Kaliningrad and was heading west toward Poland and Germany, according to Bild and The Kyiv Independent. Germany's quick reaction team made visual contact about 100km off the coast. They snapped a photo before the lumbering Russian aircraft turned north, skirting just 40km from the Baltic island of Usedom but staying out of German airspace. It's the ninth time this year German jets have been scrambled to shadow Moscow's snoopers. NATO says the Kremlin is using these flights to test alliance defences and gather intel on troop positions as the Ukraine war drags on. The airborne drama came as Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov slammed Estonia's willingness to host NATO aircraft armed with nuclear weapons, branding it a 'direct' danger to Moscow. 'Directly, of course,' he said, when asked if such a move posed a threat, Russian news agency TASS reported. Peskov sneered that Baltic leaders often make 'absurd' statements, and added icy relations could scarcely get any worse: 'It is very difficult to do anything worse.' Tallinn's Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur had earlier revealed Estonia is ready to welcome NATO jets capable of carrying tactical nuclear bombs — pointing to recent visits by US F-35s that could soon be guarding the tiny nation's skies again. It comes amid mounting alarm that Vladimir Putin is readying Russia for a showdown with NATO itself. Bruno Kahl, head of Germany's foreign intelligence service, recently warned 'Ukraine is only a step on the journey westward,' adding: 'We have intelligence showing it.' NATO chief Mark Rutte piled on the pressure, saying the alliance must brace for the possibility of a Russian attack by 2030. Putin's forces have already begun amassing hardware and troops close to Finland, just 35 miles from the border, according to satellite snaps showing activity at four Russian bases — Kamenka, Petrozavodsk, Severomorsk-2 and Olenya. Defence experts fear Moscow may attempt to provoke NATO into a limited clash, testing the alliance's Article 5 pledge of mutual defence without triggering full-scale war. Meanwhile on the battlefield, Putin's summer push in Ukraine is grinding on at a snail's pace, with Kyiv's fierce drone attacks bogging down Russian advances. After 448 days of fighting in Chasiv Yar in Donetsk, Moscow's troops reportedly control just half the city — clawing back land at a rate so slow that even snails would outpace them. But with an estimated 125,000 Russian soldiers massing along Ukraine's Sumy and Kharkiv borders, Kyiv is bracing for what could be Putin's last big gamble to seize ground before negotiating a ceasefire. Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky said his forces had managed to pin down a 50,000-strong Russian assault near Sumy, stabilising the lines for now. 8 8 8 Back in Germany, Chancellor Friedrich Merz poured more cold water on any thaw with Moscow, telling Süddeutsche Zeitung he won't pick up the phone to Putin given Russia's relentless bombing of Ukraine. His predecessor Olaf Scholz had broken ranks last year by speaking with the Kremlin tyrant — but Merz insisted the time for friendly calls is over. As Putin's bombers continue to pound Kyiv and Odesa with hundreds of drones and missiles every night, NATO eyes remain fixed on the Baltic and beyond — wary that Moscow's next gambit could spark the very clash the world fears most. It comes after Ukraine landed another humiliating blow on Vlad's war machine — blitzing two of Russia's prized Su-34 fighter jets in a daring long-range drone strike. Kyiv's forces targeted the Marinovka military airfield in the Volgograd region, flying drones 200 miles to smash four of the £37million jets. Two were destroyed outright, while the other pair were damaged, sending pro-war Russian Telegram channels into meltdown over the 'multi-billion dollar' losses. Furious Kremlin cheerleaders raged the attack 'could and should have been prevented.' Ukraine's SBU boasted the strike sparked a fire in critical infrastructure used to prep and repair Russian warplanes. Putin lashed out in brutal revenge. Overnight, Russia flattened a 21-storey tower block in Odesa, killing a married couple and wounding at least 14 others — including three children.
