The Ukrainian military said Russian forces recently launched unsuccessful attacks on their defensive lines in several regions, including around military eastern city of Bakhmut.
Russian strikes were also carried out on Kupyansk and Liman in Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, respectively, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said late Saturday evening.
Bakhmut: According to the Ukrainian military, Russia made “several unsuccessful attempts” on a group of settlements in the Bakhmut region.
Areas where fighting has recently taken place include Orikhovo-Vasilyevka and Berkhovka northwest of Bakhmut, and Ivanovskoye and Yuzhnoye to the southwest.
The Ukrainian military said that “the enemy continues to try to break through the defenses and capture Bakhmut”, and that the commander of the Eastern Military Group of Ukraine, Colonel M. Gen. Alexander Syrsky visited the units defending the city and surrounding villages.
“The main efforts of the Russian invaders are focused on the capture of Bakhmut and its surroundings. Fighting is going on around the city and on its outskirts,” the Ground Forces of Ukraine reported. said in Telegram.
The post includes footage from Syrsky’s visit.
The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti published a report about a Russian soldier walking along the outskirts of Bakhmut. In the video, he said: “The enemy is holding out, but their morale is low and from time to time they start to retreat. We still have 1740 meters (about a mile) to go to the forward positions in the center of Bakhmut. defense, but depleted.”
CNN is unable to verify the soldier’s claims about troop dispositions.
Wagner says: Evgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian private military company Wagner, announced this on Telegram. audio message that his fighters on Saturday evening took control of the village of Yakhidne, the northern outskirts of Bakhmut.
CNN was unable to immediately verify Prigozhin’s claim.
Elsewhere in eastern Ukraine: The Ukrainian General Staff said Russian troops also attacked defensive lines near Avdiivka, north of Donetsk, and Maryinka, to the southwest.
The military did not give any indication that the Moscow troops took up any positions.
Pavel Kirilenko, head of the military administration of the Donetsk region, said in Telegram that Avdiivka was under heavy enemy fire.
He reported that in less than 24 hours, “the Russians fired twice at the city with artillery, once with tanks, launched an anti-aircraft missile strike, and also struck with Grads (missiles).”
According to Kirilenko, a recently renovated school in the city was destroyed in an airstrike.