Volunteers of Ukrainian Red Cross emergency transport a wounded man from one to another hospital in Mykolaiv, Ukraine. (AP)Russia Ukraine War Live Updates: Heavy fighting raged around the eastern Ukrainian town of Pisky Thursday as Russia pressed its campaign to seize all of the industrialised Donbas region, while to the west Kyiv accused Moscow of using the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant to shield its artillery. An official with the Russia-backed Donetsk People’s Republic said Pisky, on the frontlines just 10 km northwest of provincial capital Donetsk, was under control of Russian and separatist forces.
Meanwhile, Ukraine accused Russia on Wednesday of killing at least 13 people and wounding 10 with rockets fired from around the captured Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, in the knowledge it would be risky for Ukraine to return fire. Ukraine says around 500 Russian troops with heavy vehicles and weapons are at the plant, where Ukrainian technicians continue to work.
In other news, Ukraine said Wednesday that nine Russian warplanes were destroyed in a deadly string of explosions at an air base in Crimea that appeared to be the result of a Ukrainian attack, which would represent a significant escalation in the war.
➡️ Russia launched 80 Grad rockets at the town of Marhanets across the Dnipro river from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant on Tuesday, Valentyn Reznychenko, governor of the central Dnipropetrovsk region, said, adding that more than 20 buildings were damaged.
➡️ There was no immediate comment from Russia, which has accused Ukraine of shelling the plant, something Kyiv denies.
➡️ Ukraine will respond to the Russian shelling of Marhanets and needs to consider how to inflict as much damage on Russia as possible to end the war quickly, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
➡️ Two US newspapers cited unnamed Ukrainian officials as saying Ukrainian special forces had carried out an attack on Tuesday on an air base on the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula, destroying military aircraft.
➡️ Moscow had said the explosions were detonations of stored ammunition. Kyiv has not taken responsibility for the attacks. (Reuters)
The UK Ministry of Defence, in its intelligence assessment of the ongoing war in Ukraine, has and sounded an alarm on the possible use of PFM-1 series ‘Butterfly Mines’ by the Russian military in Donetsk and Kramatorsk.
What are these mines and what kind of damage can they afflict?
As per an intelligence bulletin put out by UK Ministry of Defence a few days back on the security situation in Ukraine, Russia is is likely to have deployed anti-personnel mines to deter freedom of movement along its defensive lines in the Donbas.
The head of the Russian-backed separatist administration in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region said that a trial of captured personnel from Ukraine's Azov Regiment would take place by the end of the summer, likely in the city of Mariupol.
The Azov Regiment, a unit of Ukraine's national guard with far-right and ultranationalist origins, garnered international attention for its resistance to the Russian siege of Mariupol's vast steelworks.
After fighting for weeks from the bunkers and tunnels below the steel works, hundreds of Azov fighters surrendered in May to Russian-backed forces. Though the Azov prisoners have not yet been formally charged, on Aug. 2 Russia's supreme court ruled the regiment was a terrorist organisation, clearing the way for captured fighters to be charged as such. (Reuters)
Heavy fighting raged around the eastern Ukrainian town of Pisky on Thursday as Russia pressed its campaign to seize all of the industrialised Donbas region.
An official with the Russia-backed Donetsk People's Republic said Pisky, on the frontlines just 10 km northwest of provincial capital Donetsk, was under the control of Russian and separatist forces.
"It's hot in Pisky. The town is ours but there remain scattered pockets of resistance in its north and west," the official, Danil Bezsonov, said on Telegram. Ukrainian officials denied that the heavily fortified town, a key to the defence of Donetsk, had fallen. (Reuters)
Pro-Russian separatists accused Ukraine of shelling a brewery in the occupied eastern city of Donetsk on Wednesday, killing one person and triggering a leak of ammonia, Interfax news agency said.
The emergencies ministry in the Russian-backed self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic said a shell had hit an ammonia line late at night, sparking a fire that at one point covered 600 square metres.
Reuters pictures from the scene showed flames lighting the sky above one part of the city as well as firefighters donning masks. One picture appeared to show a corpse on the ground. (Reuters)
Ukraine said Wednesday that nine Russian warplanes were destroyed in a deadly string of explosions at an air base in Crimea that appeared to be the result of a Ukrainian attack, which would represent a significant escalation in the war.
Russia denied any aircraft were damaged in Tuesday’s blasts — or that any attack took place. But satellite photos clearly showed at least seven fighter planes at the base had been blown up and others probably damaged.
After forcing a draw from the clutches of defeat against Poland’s Oliwia Kiolbasa, guaranteeing a gold medal for Ukraine in the Chess Olympiad on Tuesday, Anna Ushenina quietly walked to the side of the hall and slumped into the arms of her teammate Natalia Buksa.
There were no leaps of joy or high-fives, just tears and hugs. When millions back home, facing a brutal Russian invasion, were fleeing for life and struggling for food and shelter, the gold medal — an Olympiad gold no less — brought just fleeting relief.
Later, with a quivering voice and welled-up eyes, Ushenina put the triumph in perspective: “It’s obviously a great feeling, but the medal can’t stop a war.” There was a moment of stunned silence as her voice echoed across the packed room.