Ukrainian artillery fire towards Russian forces at a frontline in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 27, 2022.
Evgeniy Maloletka / AP
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Evgeniy Maloletka / AP
Ukrainian artillery fire towards Russian forces at a frontline in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 27, 2022.
Evgeniy Maloletka / AP
KYIV, Ukraine – Russian forces on Thursday launched massive missile strikes on Ukraine’s Kyiv and Chernihiv regions, areas that have not been targeted for weeks, while Ukrainian officials claim announced a campaign to liberate an occupied area in the south of the country.
Kyiv regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba said on Telegram that a settlement in the region’s Vyshgorod district was targeted early Thursday morning; an “infrastructure object” has been hacked. It is unclear if there were immediate casualties.
Vyshhgorod is located about 12 miles north of Kyiv city center. Kuleba linked the strikes to the Day of Nations, which Ukraine marked for the first time on Thursday.
“Russia, with the help of rockets, is avenging the widespread resistance, which the Ukrainians were able to organize precisely because it is their state,” Kuleba told Ukrainian television. “Ukraine has disrupted Russia’s plans and will continue to defend itself.”
Chernihiv Governor Vyacheslav Chaus reported that many rockets were fired from the territory of Belarus at the village of Honcharivska.
Russian troops withdrew from the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions a few months ago after failing to capture them. The new attacks on the areas come a day after the leader of pro-Kremlin separatists in the east, Denis Pushilin, publicly called on Russian forces to “liberate Russian cities by the people” Russia established – Kyiv, Chernihiv, Poltava, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lutsk.”
Mayor Ihor Terekhov said Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, also suffered a barrage of shelling overnight. The southern city of Mykolaiv was also shot, with one person injured.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military continues its counter-offensive in the occupied southern Kherson area, attacking a key bridge over the Dnieper River on Wednesday.
Ukrainian media on Thursday quoted Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich as saying that the operation to liberate Kherson “has begun.” Arestovich said Kyiv’s forces are planning to isolate Russian troops there and leave them with three options – “withdraw, if possible, surrender or be destroyed”.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said in televised remarks on Wednesday that he was “cautious” in assessing the progress of a possible counterattack. “I really want it to be much faster,” he said, adding that “the enemy is now concentrating the maximum number of[forces]precisely in Kherson’s direction.”
“A very large-scale movement of their troops has begun, they are gathering more forces,” warned Danilov.
The British military on Thursday estimated that the Ukrainian counterattack in Kherson was “gathering momentum”.
“Their forces most likely established a bridgehead south of the Ingulets River, forming the northern boundary of Russian-occupied Kherson,” the British Ministry of Defense said on Thursday.
It added that Ukraine used its new long-range artillery to damage at least three of the bridges across the Dnieper River, “which Russia relies on to supply its controlled areas.” The British Ministry of Defense concluded that the 1,000-meter-long Antonivsky bridge that Ukrainian forces attacked on Wednesday was likely “unusable”.
The Ukrainian president’s office said Thursday morning that Russian shelling of cities and villages over the past 24 hours has killed at least five civilians, all in the eastern Donetsk region, and nine others. injured.
Fighting in recent weeks has focused on the Donetsk region. It has intensified in recent days as Russian forces appear to emerge after a reported “temporary pause” after capturing the neighboring Luhansk region.
A rocket hit a residential building in Toretsk early Thursday morning, destroying two floors. “Missile terrorism again. We will not give up… We will not be threatened,” Donetsk region governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Telegram.
Analysts from the Institute for the Study of War believe that Russian forces are focusing their efforts on capturing the cities of Bakhmut and Siversk in the Donetsk region.
“Russian forces have committed sufficient resources to conduct daily close-in strikes on the ground and seize territory on these two axes but have been unable to maintain a steady pace of offensive activity,” the institute said. similar or to achieve similar territorial interests elsewhere in Ukraine”.
