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Tag: Luhansk

  • Tracking the war with Russia : Ukraine in maps

    Two days after the only bridge connecting Russia with the annexed Crimea was broken in an explosion, Russia fired missiles at various Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv.

    Here are the latest developments:

    • Missile strikes have been reported in cities including Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro, and Zaporizhzhia, in what appears to be the most widespread set of Russian attacks since the early weeks of the war
    • Russia has partially reopened the bridge linking it to Crimea, which is an important supply route for Russian forces fighting in Ukraine
    • Ukrainian troops have continued to progress after breaking through Russian defences in the southern Kherson region
    • In Donetsk, Ukrainian forces are pushing east, having taken the town of Lyman

    Ukrainian cities hit in missile strikes

    At least 12 Ukrainian cities have been hit in missile strikes two days after a strategically important bridge linking Russia with Crimea was damaged in a blast.

    Kyiv has been targeted for the first time in months, but explosions have also been reported in Ternopil and Lviv in the west, which has so far escaped the worst of the war.

    Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russia has targeted energy infrastructure across the country and that energy facilities in Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv are among the places hit.

    Ukraine’s military commander says Russia launched 83 missiles in total.

    It comes a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine’s security services of attacking the Kerch bridge – although Ukrainian officials have not indicated whether their forces were behind the attack.

    The 19km (12-mile) bridge, the longest in Europe, is an important supply route for Russian forces fighting in Ukraine.

    Russia has used the bridge to move military equipment, ammunition, and personnel from Russia to battlefields in southern Ukraine.

    Crimea map

    Mr Putin described the blast as an “an act of terrorism aimed at destroying Russia’s critical civilian infrastructure”.

    Russian authorities partially reopened the roadway part of the bridge hours after the attack but for light traffic only.

    The railway part of the bridge – where oil tankers caught fire – has also reopened.

    Ukrainian breakthrough in the south

    Ukrainian troops have continued to advance after breaking through Russia’s defences on the west bank of the Dnieper River in Kherson.

    They have retaken the village of Dudchany and the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) says Ukrainian sources report that Russian occupation authorities are moving their families from the Kherson region to Crimea.

    Map showing a close-up of the Kherson region in Ukraine

    Ukrainian troops have been attacking bridges, ferries and pontoons in recent weeks, attempting to make Russian positions on the west side of the river unsustainable, and thereby force a withdrawal.

    Also in the south, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has called for the demilitarisation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

    Russian and Ukrainian sources have accused each other of shelling close to the plant, which is Europe’s biggest nuclear facility.

    Map showing the south of Ukraine. 10 Oct

    Russia’s military took over the power station in early March, but it is still being operated by Ukrainian staff.

    Intense fighting in the east

    Ukrainian troops took control of the key logistical hub of Lyman in Donetsk more than a week ago and have continued to push further east towards the region of Luhansk.

    Map showing a close-up of the frontline in the east of Ukraine

    The ISW says they have “made substantial gains” in the area.

    Russian reports suggests their next target may be the city of Kreminna.

    Analysts say the loss of Lyman is a major set-back for Russia.

    Russian forces have been trying to push forward in Bakhmut, but reports suggest they have been repelled by Ukrainian troops.

    Eastern Ukraine control map

    The latest fighting follows a major Russian defeat in the east.

    Ukraine says it recaptured 6,000 sq km (2,317 sq miles) of territory from Russia in early September, when it forced back Russian units in the Kharkiv region.

    Russian troops withdrew from the key towns of Izyum and Kupiansk, saying that the retreat would allow its troops to “regroup”.

    Both towns were major logistical hubs for Russian forces in Donbas.

    Annexation of four regions

    Four regions of Ukraine, that are partially or almost completely occupied by Russia are being annexed by the Russian Federation.

    It follows self-styled referendums in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, held between 23 and 27 September.

    BBCMAP SHOWING THE FOUR REGIONS OF UKRAINE – DONETSK,

    President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia will use “all the forces and resources” it has to “liberate” the four regions.

    In an address to the Russian people, Mr Putin said his country had “various weapons of destruction”, adding: “I’m not bluffing.”

    The annexations follow a “partial mobilisation” of about 300,000 Russian reservists.

    Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, but Ukrainian forces retook large areas around Kyiv in early April after Russia abandoned its push towards the capital.

    Areas in the west of the country, including Lviv, have seen missile attacks but no attempt by Russian forces to take and occupy ground.

    The Russians have suffered heavy losses since the invasion began and significant quantities of Russian weaponry have also been destroyed or captured.

     

  • Ukraine war: Liberating towns is a shot in the arm for Ukrainian troops

    Oleksii tells me: “I feel safe here because we are on our land and even the ground will bring me help.” That’s despite the nearby sound of small-arms fire, exploding artillery shells landing within sight, and the roar of Russian jets overhead.

    The ground he and the small team of Ukrainian troops now occupy is on the border of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The same ground that Russian President Vladimir Putin recently declared as being Russian forever.

    Over the past week, the men of Ukraine’s D1 National Guard Unit have advanced more than 20km (12 miles) east of the recently liberated city of Lyman in the Donetsk region. They now occupy a former Russian position in a wood – still within range of the retreating Russian army. Part of “forever Russia” is already back in Ukrainian hands. Russia’s now the defending army.

    The reversal in fortunes has been a shot in the arm for Ukrainian troops. There’s a palpable sense of confidence among them, even though they’re still within range. Ilya, another member of the unit, tells me: “We can retake territory, but the Russians cannot.” I ask why? “Because they are weak now, they’re scared of us, they’re running from us.”

    This position also tells a story about the difference between Ukrainian and Russian discipline and morale. Strewn across the ground and hanging in trees are remnants of the retreating Russian forces – empty cans, ration packs, boots, bottles, and clothes.

    Ilya picks up a discarded Russian helmet and compares it with his own. “Army of the future,” jokes Ilya as he taps the Russian helmet. “A very bad future,” adds a comrade, laughing.

    It’s not that dissimilar to what Russian troops would have worn in World War Two. They hold up a Russian winter glove and read the label. It says it was made in 2005. “New for Russians,” they joke. Another soldier called Duke says Russia treats its soldiers like meat.

    Oleksii says discarded Russian trash often gives away their positions when they fly their small drone. They rely on one of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite kits for communication. They say it’s been working all week.

    As you drive around the Donbas there are more signs of Russia’s depleted army. We witnessed Ukrainian forces towing away a troop carrier and a large self-propelled gun – both still marked with the Russian “Z”.

    Collected ordnance
    Image caption, Some of the collected, discarded materiel the Russian leave behind

    Ukraine’s now captured more Russian armour than it’s been supplied by the West. Dozens more burnt-out military vehicles, too damaged to salvage, have been left rusting on the sides of roads. Boxes of unused ammunition are collected to be used against their former owners. The Donbas is also still littered with lethal mines – which will take years to clear.

    Any sense of euphoria among Ukrainian troops is not always shared among the people they’ve freed from Russian control. Liberation comes with a costly legacy.

    Those who survived the shelling are wondering how they’ll make it through the winter. Tens of thousands of people are without power and running water.

    In Lyman we come across Natalia and Vitali, searching in the rubble of a bombed-out house for the wood they can burn. Their fire is now the only way they can stay warm. An estimated 80% of their city has been destroyed or damaged. They narrowly survived a Russian rocket landing on their home – waking them up at 05:30.

    Natalia and Vitali
    Image caption, Natalia and Vitali speaking to the BBC’s Jonathan Beale

    Natalia describes life now as “hard and simply unbearable”.

    “We are like ants. We were trampled on and those who survived now carry firewood. And those who did not are buried,” she says. Like many here, she tries to avoid blaming either side for her woes.

    When we arrive at the centre of Lyman there’s already a long queue for bread. Many of them appear to be hedging their bets on the future.

    Lyman bread queue
    Image caption, The queue for bread in Lyman

    Kataryna, a mum with two young children, tries to explain her dilemma: Russia, she says, still “has a lot of power, which is why it is scary that they might return. Because the city has already suffered very badly, and if the city will be passed back and forth from hand to hand, then nothing will remain including people”.

    At the moment she says all she wants is electricity and peace. This winter she’s unlikely to get either.

    DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author’s and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana

    Source: bbc.com

     

  • Ukraine war: Putinn passes laws annexing Ukraine despite military losses

    Even as his troops faced more blows, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the necessary documents to seize four regions of Ukraine.

    The documents state that the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson areas have been “admitted into the Russian Federation.”

    But in two of those areas – Luhansk and Kherson – Ukraine said it has been retaking more villages.

    Mr Putin also signed a decree to formalise Russia’s seizure of the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia.

    Last Friday, the Russian leader held a grand ceremony in the Kremlin, where he signed agreements with the Moscow-installed leaders of the four regions.

    The move followed self-proclaimed referendums in the areas, denounced as a “sham” by the West.

    But on the ground there appears to be a different reality, with Ukrainian forces making gains in both the south and the east.

    Serhiy Haidai, Ukrainian governor of Luhansk, told the BBC on Wednesday that six villages in the region had been recaptured.

    And President Zelensky later said Ukraine had liberated three more villages in the southern region of Kherson.

    That followed a series of gains in Kherson the previous day, including the strategically key village of Davydiv Brid.

    Meanwhile, the southern city of Zaporizhzhia was rocked by a series of huge explosions an hour or so before dawn.

    Local authorities say seven Russian missiles hit residential buildings and that people are under the rubble. There has been no information on casualties so far.

    The BBC’s Paul Adams, who is in the city, says rescue workers are combing through the shattered remains of an elegant five storey apartment building in the middle of the city.

    Ukraine says multiple explosions were heard in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia before dawn on Thursday
    Image caption, Zaporizhzhia was rocked by a series of huge explosions an hour or so before dawn on Thursday

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would retake any territory that had been lost to Ukrainian forces.

    Facing questions over the recent losses, he told reporters: “There is no contradiction here. They will be with Russia forever, they will be returned.”

    In a speech to teachers on Russian teachers’ day, Mr Putin said he would “calmly develop” the annexed territories.

    But Andrey Kartopolov, the chairman of the State Duma defence committee, told state media that Russia needed to stop lying about what was happening on the battlefield, saying that Russians were not stupid.

    Russia is still working to mobilise reservists, after Mr Putin announced a call-up last month of 300,000 people who had completed compulsory military service.

    But Mr Putin has rowed back on which groups will be affected, after strong opposition and protests in Russia against the move.

    He has signed a decree exempting several categories of students, including first-time students at accredited institutions, and certain types of postgraduate students – such as those in the field of science.

    In another move, President Putin has signed a decree to formalise Russia’s seizure of the nuclear power plant in one of the annexed regions – Zaporizhzhia – which has been occupied by Russian troops since the early days of the war.

    Russia says the plant – Europe’s largest nuclear facility – will be operated by a new company, but Ukraine’s nuclear operator has dismissed the move as “worthless”.

    Rafael Grossi, the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, has said he will hold consultations with the two sides following the development.

    He is heading to Kyiv and then Moscow, seeking to establish a protection zone around the plant, which is situated near the front line of fighting.

    Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has signed the final papers to annex four regions of Ukraine – even as his military suffered further setbacks.

    The Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions are “accepted into the Russian Federation” the documents say.

  • EU ambassadors impose new sanctions against Russia

    EU member countries have agreed on another round of sanctions against Russia over its aggression against Ukraine, the Czech EU presidency said on Wednesday.

    “Ambassadors reached a political agreement on new sanctions against Russia,” the presidency said on Twitter.

    Edita Hrda, permanent representative of the Czech Republic to the EU, said the sanctions were in response to Russia’s annexation of four regions in Ukraine, which the West has deemed illegitimate.

    This morning we reported that Vladimir Putin had signed laws absorbing four Ukrainian regions into Russia.

    Earlier this week, both houses of the Russian parliament ratified treaties making the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions part of Russia.

    The referendums have been described as a “sham” by the West.

  • Ukraine defeats Russia in the south

    More territory has been retaken by Ukrainian forces in regions that Russia illegally annexed, with Kyiv’s soldiers moving closer to Kherson in the south and consolidating gains in the east.

    Officials from Russia who had been deployed in Kherson acknowledged the advance but claimed that Moscow’s men had dug in.

    In the east, Ukrainian forces pushed into the Russian-held Luhansk region.

    Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said “there are new liberated settlements in several regions”.

    Speaking during his nightly address, President Zelensky said “fierce fighting continues in many areas”, but he did not give details. The progress of Ukraine’s counterattacks have been closely guarded and reporters have largely been kept away from the front lines.

    But in the south, Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed leader in the Kherson region, admitted that Ukrainian forces had broken through near Dudchany, a town on the Dnipro river about 30km (20 miles) south of the previous front line. The river is called Dnieper by Russians.

    “There are settlements that are occupied by Ukrainian forces,” Mr Saldo said. Some Russian reports say the Ukrainians have now taken Dudchany.

    A Russian defence ministry spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, said “numerically superior” Ukrainian tanks had “driven a deep wedge” south of Zolota Balka, a village that marked the previous front line on the Dnipro. He claimed the Russians had killed about 130 Ukrainian troops in that fighting.

    According to Mr Saldo, two Ukrainian battalions tried to reach the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, about 70km (44 miles) east of Kherson. The power station is in the port city of Nova Kakhovka.

    The Ukrainian advance is targeting supply lines for as many as 25,000 Russian troops on the west bank of the Dnipro, Reuters news agency reports.

    Map of Kherson region
    Short presentational transparent line

    Meanwhile, in the east Kyiv’s troops have continued an advance that has seen them slowly making inroads into Luhansk, a province annexed by Moscow last week and previously under almost complete Russian control.

    On Saturday Ukrainian forces recaptured the important hub town of Lyman in the east, lying near the Luhansk regional border. Russia’s military had turned Lyman into a logistical base.

    Russia’s proxy forces in Luhansk said Ukrainian troops had pushed a few kilometres into the Luhansk region. Reports suggest that the Ukrainians are moving towards the Russian-held towns of Kremenna and Svatove in Luhansk, with some pro-Kremlin bloggers suggesting that Russian forces have again been ordered to retreat.

    Kherson and Luhansk are among four regions which Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared to be part of Russia, following so-called referendums denounced as fraudulent by Kyiv and its Western allies. Russia does not fully control any of the four regions.

    On Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov attracted ridicule online after he admitted that Russia was still deciding which areas it had “annexed”, suggesting that Moscow does not know where its self-declared borders are.

    Mr Peskov claimed the entirety of Luhansk and Donetsk regions were part of Russia, but said the Kremlin will “continue consultations with the population regarding the borders of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions”.

    Kyiv has vowed to retake all the territory annexed by Russia, including Crimea, seized by Russian troops in 2014.

    The Russian defence ministry says reservists drafted into the army under Mr Putin’s mobilisation order last month are now undergoing intensive combat training in the Russian-controlled Luhansk and Donetsk regions. The Kremlin plans to call up about 300,000 reservists – though Mr Putin did not set an upper limit.

  • Truss: UK will never accept the 4 Russia’s annexed regions as anything other than Ukrainian

    Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia would never be accepted by the UK, according to Prime Minister Liz Truss.

    In advance of President Vladimir Putin’s anticipated decision to recognise the territories once occupied by Ukraine as Russian following widely condemned referendums, she released a statement on Friday morning.

    She said: “Vladimir Putin has, once again, acted in violation of international law with clear disregard for the lives of the Ukrainian people he claims to represent.

    “The UK will never ignore the sovereign will of those people and we will never accept the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia as anything other than Ukrainian territory.

    “Putin cannot be allowed to alter international borders using brute force. We will ensure he loses this illegal war.”

  • Russia’s planned annexation of Ukrainian territories follows predictable script

    In a move that follows a plodding and predictable script Russia will recognise the four territories it has occupied and captured in conquest. 

    Under the country’s 1993 constitution there needed to be a popular vote for this to happen – hence the hurried fake referenda.

    Like other autocratic police states, pseudo- legalism is of the utmost importance in Russia – we’ll hear a lot more turgid legal language today as a way of giving this international outrage a veneer of legitimacy.

    Moving to annex Russia has overturned centuries of convention – that you don’t steal land with force.

    Putin is also returning Europe to a period pre-WW2.

    For the Kremlin though there’s logic and need.

    Domestically the annexation allows Putin more room to argue that Russia’s ‘Special Military Operation’ is not an offensive but a defensive manoeuvre.

    There was no invasion.

    Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson are now, according to Putin, part of the motherland.

    Mobilisation is therefore not only justified but necessary to fight off a wider attack by the west.

    The Kremlin is signalling it is now battling not a limited war but an unlimited existential war.

    That’s the sale to the public.

    What he’s hawking to the west is a bit more nuclear blackmail.

    As part of Russia these four occupied regions will fall under Moscow’s nuclear umbrella – is it worth WW3 by continuing to support Ukraine?

    And in the upside-down world of Putin’s Russia reality doesn’t matter.

    The fact that Russian forces don’t even control all of the areas he’s about to annex – which is about the size of Portugal – can be glossed over.

    The war of liberation continues and even if it means bombing his own new subjects.

    This morning in what appears to be another egregious Russian war crime a convoy of civilians were killed in a missile attack.

    At the time of writing 28 are wounded and 25 dead according to officials in Ukraine.

    The bigger picture of all of this is that this crisis just got a bit worse.

    Putin is signposting that – despite manpower shortages and major setbacks on the battlefield – he’s not giving up.

    Any chance of a negotiated settlement is now non-existent.

    Source: Alex Rossi, Sky News international correspondent