According to Ukrainian sources, after the Russian army took over the area around Luhansk, Putin is now increasingly turning his attention to Donetsk. Meanwhile, London reports that the Russian reserve only has outdated and unsuitable equipment at its disposal. All news about the war in Ukraine can be found in the ticker.
10.16 a.m .: After taking the Luhansk region, according to Ukrainian information, the Russian army is now increasingly targeting the Donetsk region from there. The occupiers launched attacks from Lysychansk towards the west, Ukrainian Luhansk governor Serhiy Hajday said on Saturday. “We are making every effort to stop the Russian armed groups across the board.” However, according to Hajdaj, they are attacking from multiple sides and trying to penetrate deep into the neighboring area.
They create a “real hell” by rocket attacks and artillery fire. However, Ukrainian forces put up a brave resistance, Hajdaj said.
Next in the Donetsk region, Russia is likely to have its sights set on the larger cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. It is Moscow’s declared goal to wrest the region completely from Ukrainian control. According to the Ukrainian General Staff in Kyiv, there was shelling in other parts of the country, including Kharkiv and Chernihiv oblasts. Civilian infrastructure was also hit.
Enemy attacks were repeatedly repelled, it said. Ukrainian air, missile and artillery units fired on concentrations of Russian troops and ammunition dumps. “The enemy has suffered significant losses,” said the general staff in Kyiv.
9:53 a.m .: Great Britain has questioned the statements by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin that Russia has not really started the war against Ukraine. The Ministry of Defense in London referred to the Russian preparations for new offensives. The reinforcements are “ad hoc compilations” that are sent out with outdated or unsuitable equipment, it said on Saturday, citing intelligence information.
For example, a large part of the Russian reserves, which are being drawn together from all over the country, only have Soviet-type MT-LB troop carriers at their disposal. These vehicles are significantly weaker armored and armed than the BMP-2 armored personnel carriers that were used at the beginning of the war.
07.46: Ukraine are said to have “masterfully” maneuvered themselves into better positions in Luhansk despite losing ground. This is reported by a reporter and refers to high-ranking officials in the US military. Exactly how this will help the Ukrainian troops in Luhansk is not clear in detail.
6:30 a.m.: Shelling in eastern Ukraine again injured or killed people. In the towns of Seversk and Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, a total of five people were killed and three injured by Russian attacks on Thursday and Friday, the government authorities said. The pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk spoke of 3 dead and 14 wounded by Ukrainian shelling. Combat zone reports cannot be independently verified.
Saturday, July 9, 3:00 a.m.: Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk called on residents of Kherson to evacuate the southern region immediately. “I urge you to evacuate as soon as possible in any case. Don’t wait,” Vereshchuk said.
She warned residents that they could be used by the Russians as human shields and that staying in the occupied districts of Zaporizhia and Kherson regions is dangerous. “People have to find a way to leave because our armed forces will abandon their occupation. There will be huge battles,” she warned.
12:00 p.m.: Serhiy Haidai, governor of the Luhansk region, said around 80 percent of residential buildings in the Russian-held city have been destroyed or badly damaged. In addition, the Russian armed forces would continue to plunder the houses of the residents.
Friday, July 8, 11:30 a.m.: According to information from the British Ministry of Defense, Russia is now targeting Siversk in the Donetsk region as the next tactical target. Accordingly, the Russian military is currently relocating its weapons and equipment to the city in the north of Donetsk.
The report also said that Russian forces are “trying to advance towards their most likely operational target, the Sloviansk-Kramatorsk urban area”. Currently, Russian troops are believed to be on pause to recuperate before a new offensive in the Donetsk region.
6:53 p.m .: Russian troops have again caused massive destruction in their unabated attacks in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. At least one person was killed and several others injured in an airstrike on the city of Kramatorsk on Thursday. According to Ukrainian sources, seven people were killed and several others injured in the region within 24 hours. The nearby city of Sloviansk was again attacked by Russian troops.
During the attacks on Kramatorsk, among other things, according to reports by AFP journalists, an explosion tore a large crater between a hotel and a residential building. The journalists saw one dead and several injured. Several houses and cars went up in flames. The city’s mayor wrote on Facebook: “Air raid on the center of Kramatorsk. There are victims.”
Kramatorsk is the capital of the Ukrainian-controlled part of Donetsk region. Only about 15 kilometers away is the city of Sloviansk, which is apparently the next target for Russian troops in their advance in eastern Ukraine. Sloviansk and Kramatorsk are the two largest cities in the Donetsk region still under Ukrainian control.
According to Russia, it has taken control of the entire neighboring Luhansk region and is now trying to conquer the Donetsk region. The goal is to occupy the entire Donbass region, parts of which have been controlled by Moscow-backed separatists since 2014.
The Ukrainian authorities again urged residents of the Donetsk region to flee. “The evacuation is underway. We get people out every day,” Sloviansk Mayor Vadym Liakh said on Wednesday. Of the approximately 110,000 residents of the city before the start of the war, around 23,000 are still in the city. On Wednesday, among other things, rockets hit a market square and surrounding streets in the center of Sloviansk, killing at least three people.
12:46 p.m .: According to the Ukrainian secret service, Russian occupiers are burning corpses in Cherson to hide the extent of their own losses. The secret service writes on Twitter that places with charred remains of people are being discovered time and again on the outskirts of the city. “Due to the considerable fire damage, it is difficult to identify the objects precisely,” it said.
11:34 a.m .: Ukrainian soldiers raised the Ukrainian flag again on the symbolic Snake Island in the Black Sea, which had been abandoned by Russian troops. The spokesman for the military administration of the Odessa region Serhiy Brachuk published several photos in the Telegram news service on Thursday. The flag was also signed by Odessa’s military governor, Maxym Marchenko. It also has the inscription: “Remember, “Russian warship”, the island belongs to Ukraine!!!”
The island is about 35 kilometers from the Ukrainian part of the Danube Delta. Snake Island became widely known a few days after the start of the war in late February through an incident involving a Russian warship. The ship’s crew then asked the Snake Island garrison to lay down their arms. The Ukrainian marine infantryman Roman Hrybow replied: “Russian warship, fuck off!” The almost 32-year-old then became a folk hero in Ukraine.
A little later, the Russians occupied Snake Island, but withdrew a week ago after sustained Ukrainian air and artillery attacks.
According to Ukrainian sources, the island’s jetty was “severely damaged” by two Russian missiles on Thursday morning.
Thursday, July 7, 9:16 a.m .: According to information from Kyiv, Russian troops continue to fight for complete control of the already largely conquered Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine. To this end, the Russians have relocated some of their units, the Ukrainian general staff announced on Thursday.
Luhansk governor Serhiy Hajday had previously stated that even after the fall of the strategically important city of Lysychansk, fighting would continue in the outskirts. Moscow, on the other hand, has been saying for days that its own troops have taken complete control of Luhansk.
The Ukrainian General Staff also reported further Russian attacks in the neighboring Donetsk region. Around the cities of Kramatorsk and Bakhmut, several settlements were shelled with artillery, it said. Two rocket attacks were also reported from the southern Ukrainian region of Odessa during the night.
5:05 p.m .: After just one day, the Ukrainian military lifted domestic travel restrictions for conscripts. This was announced by the supreme commander Valeriy Saluschnyj on Wednesday in the Telegram news service after massive criticism.
The day before, the order for conscripts to obtain permission from the district military replacement office to leave the reporting point triggered a nationwide wave of outrage. Even President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had distanced himself from the military on the issue and called for the order to be withdrawn.
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