UKRAINE-CRISIS/KUPIANSK (PHOTO) – REUTERS Agency
KYIV (Reuters) – Fighting along the northern part of Ukraine’s eastern front has “worsened significantly” in recent days, the commander of Kiev’s ground forces said on Saturday.
Oleksandr Syrskyi, who was visiting Ukrainian troops in the area, said Russian forces had regrouped after suffering losses and were attacking around the village of Makiivka and towards the town of Kupiansk.
“The main objective of the enemy is the defeat of a group of our troops, the encirclement of Kupiansk and reaching the Oskil River,” he said in comments broadcast by an official military platform.
Syrskyi added that Russian forces were carrying out “dozens” of assaults each day, but that Ukrainian troops were prepared and resisting.
Kremlin forces are also shelling the strategic Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, on a different section of the eastern front, in what Russian and Western officials said amounted to a new offensive.
The four-month-old Ukrainian counteroffensive has made some progress both in the east, near Bakhmut, and in the south, where Kiev hopes to reach the Sea of Azov, but progress has been gradual.
(Reporting by Dan Peleschuk; editing in Spanish by Carlos Serrano)
Source: Ambito
