First modification:
kyiv was the target of drone strikes on the night of Sunday to Monday May 8 that left at least five injured and caused damage in several areas of the capital. Hostilities were also reported in Odessa and Sevastopol. For its part, the Wagner paramilitary group announced that it will continue fighting in the city of Bakhmut after Moscow promised more weapons and ammunition.
While this Monday, May 8, commemorates the Allied victory over Nazi Germany and the end of World War II in Europe in 1945, kyiv was the target of new attacks. About 35 Russian drones were shot down in the night from Sunday to Monday, according to the administration of the Ukrainian capital. The wave of attacks left at least five injured and caused damage to the city’s infrastructure.
“We were very scared because we heard the drones for the first time. They were flying very low. It scared us a lot. It’s sad that people were injured,” Vladyslav, a resident of the capital, told AFP.
The region of Odessa it was also targeted overnight, according to the regional military administration.
“An X-22 missile hit a logistics infrastructure – a food warehouse – (…) causing a serious fire,” the Ukrainian Air Command said.
On the other hand, the Russian administration in crimea He claimed on Sunday to have repelled a night attack with a dozen drones, which he attributed to Ukraine. The onslaught would have targeted the port city of Sevastopol, the home port of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and a regular target of drone strikes.
According to Moscow, the drones were neutralized by anti-aircraft defense. “No infrastructure in the city was damaged,” said Mikhail Razvojaev, the city’s governor.
According to analysts, the Ukrainian counteroffensive, aimed at reconquering the territories occupied by Russia in the east and south of the country, has already begun at a “strategic level.”
The bombardments and acts of sabotage in recent days attributed to kyiv, which target Russian infrastructure in the occupied territories, would constitute the start of this counteroffensive.
On the other hand, the situation at the nuclear power plant in Zaporozhyewhich is located in the center of an extremely strategic area for the Ukrainian counter-offensive towards Crimea, is disturbing.
Although its six reactors are stopped, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, expressed his concern on Saturday about an “increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous” situation around the plant.
Wagner will continue to fight in Bakhmut
The head of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, threatened last Friday, in an incendiary video addressed to the Russian military hierarchy, to withdraw his troops from Bakhmut if they did not receive more ammunition. On Sunday, the leader of the private group changed his tune.
“Last night we received the order to fight (…) They have promised us to give us all the ammunition and weapons we need to continue operations,” Prigozhin announced in an audio message.
Bakhmut has been the epicenter of the fighting in eastern Ukraine since last summer and has now acquired a great symbolic charge. Russia claims to be on the brink of complete control of this city for several weeks and kyiv believes that Moscow is rushing to capture it by May 9, Victory Day in Russia.
According to Prigozhin, Bakmhut is 95% controlled by his troops. The city has been subjected to waves of extremely deadly attacks and has now been turned into a field of ruins.
“We have had many casualties. We were 124 fighters at the beginning of the war, now we are less than 80,” Denis, a member of a Ukrainian paratrooper unit, told AFP.
The fighting, which has intensified in recent weeks, continues.
“The enemy is not going to change his targets and is doing everything possible to control Bakhmut,” said General Oleksandr Syrsky, commander of the Ukrainian ground forces.
“It’s been difficult for a month (…) there were days when there were 100 injured and others when there were between 50 and 60 (…) It all depends on what happens in Bakhmut,” he told AFP on Friday. Volodymyr Pihoulevskii, a member of the Ukrainian medical team.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops continue to hold out to prevent Russia from taking the city completely, an imminent target for the Kremlin.
with AFP
