Russia today denied having been “evicted” from Andriivka, a Ukrainian town south of the city of Bakhmut on the Eastern Front, a day after Ukraine claimed to have taken this position and at a time when they denounce new Russian attacks in a city from Kharkov, located on the northwestern front.
“In the Donetsk area, the enemy continues to launch assault operations, trying in vain to dislodge Russian troops from the towns of Klichiivka and Andriivka,” the Russian Defense Ministry reported in its daily bulletin, the AFP news agency replied. .
Andriivka is a few kilometers from Bakhmut, a key city on the eastern front, in the hands of Russian troops and devastated by fierce fighting and bombing that has lasted for more than a year.
Russia’s announcement comes after yesterday the Ukrainian General Staff stated that its troops had liberated Andriivka, a tiny town that had 50 inhabitants before the offensive.
The Ukrainian military said that in this offensive operation they had inflicted “significant losses on the enemy in terms of troops and equipment.”
On Ukrainian television, Oleksandr Borodin, spokesman for a brigade involved in the fighting, detailed yesterday that Andriivka had been “completely destroyed.”
The Battle of Bakhmut, which Russia claimed capture last May, is the longest and deadliest of the offensive.
Also today, the Russian Aerospace Forces launched an attack today against the Ukrainian military airfield of Krivoi Rog, a town located in the central-eastern province of Dnipropetrovsk, which had been, on previous occasions, the target of Russian offensives, the Ministry of Defense of Russia.
At least two MiG-29 fighter jets and three other Su-25 attack aircraft of the Ukrainian troops were destroyed, the Russian military portfolio said in a statement, and highlighted that up to 11 “high precision” attacks were launched this week against Ukrainian port infrastructure and naval drone storages.
The Russian Defense Ministry declared that the attacks resulted in the destruction of “a large arsenal” of Ukrainian ammunition and celebrated that they managed to “disrupt” Ukrainian logistics and the supply of Western-made weapons.
In parallel, Ukraine reported new attacks in Kharkov, a province located in the northwest of Ukraine, under Russian control and which Russia annexed in September 2022 after holding a referendum.
Russian forces launched “five S-300 (long-range edition) missiles at the Kholodnohirsky neighborhood of Kharkov,” wounding five people, Governor Oleg Sinegubov reported on the Russian messaging network Telegram.
“According to initial medical information, five civilians were injured, their condition is mild to moderate and their lives are not in danger,” Sinegubov said.
Four months ago, Ukraine launched a counteroffensive to repel Russian forces from the east and south of the country, but the advance of its troops is slow in the face of the powerful defensive lines erected by Russian soldiers, which include trenches, minefields and anti-tank traps. .
This operation only allowed Ukraine to recover a handful of towns, but kyiv’s assault has intensified in recent weeks, especially on the southern front.
Source: Ambito
