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Russian troops alongside soldiers from the Wagner Group have advanced in Soledar, as fighting rages on in the Donbass region on the 320th day, since the start of the deadly conflict.
Russian forces in the past 24 hours mounted eight missile and 31 air strikes, carried out 63 attacks from rocket launchers and hit the cities of Kharkiv, Kherson, Kramatorsk and Ochakiv, Ukraine's Armed Forces said. (Reuters)
Ukrainian town 'covered with corpses' amid heavy fighting
Russian forces are escalating their onslaught against Ukrainian positions around the wrecked eastern city of Bakhmut, Ukrainian officials said, bringing new levels of death and devastation in the months-long battle.
“Everything is completely destroyed, there is almost no life left,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said of the scene around Bakhmut and the nearby town of Soledar.
“The whole land near Soledar is covered with the corpses of the occupiers and scars from the strikes,” Zelenskyy said.
Russian forces in the past 24 hours mounted eight missile and 31 air strikes, carried out 63 attacks from rocket launchers and hit the cities of Kharkiv, Kherson, Kramatorsk and Ochakiv, Ukraine's Armed Forces said.
Russia now fighting NATO in Ukraine
One of President Vladimir Putin's closest allies said Moscow was now fighting NATO in Ukraine and the West was trying to wipe Russia from the political map of the world.
“The events in Ukraine are not a clash between Moscow and Kyiv – this is a military confrontation between Russia and NATO, and above all the United States and Britain,” Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said.
“The Westerners’ plans are to continue to pull Russia apart, and eventually just erase it from the political map of the world,” Patrushev told the Argumenti i Fakti newspaper.
Russia to continue developing nuclear weapons
Russia’s defence minister says his country will continue developing its nuclear triad of ballistic missiles, submarines and strategic bombers because such weapons are the main guarantee of its sovereignty.
“We will continue to develop the nuclear triad and maintain its combat readiness since the nuclear shield has been and remains the main guarantor of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our state,” Sergei Shoigu said.
“We will also increase the combat capabilities of the aerospace forces – both in terms of the work of fighters and bombers in areas where modern air defence systems are in operation, and in terms of improving unmanned aerial vehicles.”
Britain says Russian forces may control most of Ukraine's Soledar
Russian and Wagner forces are probably in control of most of the small town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine after tactical advances in the last four days, the British defence ministry has said in a regular intelligence update.
Officials in Kiev have said Moscow stepped up a powerful assault on Soledar in the industrial Donbass region, forcing Ukrainian troops to repel waves of attacks led by the Wagner contract militia around the salt mining town and nearby fronts.
Soledar is a few miles from Bakhmut, where troops of both sides have suffered heavy losses in some of the most intense trench warfare since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly 11 months ago.
"Russia’s Soledar axis is highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt Ukrainian lines of communication," Britain added in its intelligence update.
Zelenskyy: Resilience of our forces in Soledar has helped Ukraine win time
"Thanks to the resilience of our soldiers in Soledar, we have won for Ukraine additional time and additional strength for Ukraine," Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.
Ukrainian military reports say the country's troops are withstanding heavy attacks by Russian forces redeployed in Soledar after failing to take the larger nearby town of Bakhmut.
Zelenskyy did not spell out what he meant by gaining time and strength, but Ukrainian officials and senior officers have warned that Russia is planning a new major offensive in the coming months.
Polish leaders meet, discuss further support for Ukraine
Poland's President Andrzej Duda with the prime minister and some of his ministers to discuss security issues amid the war in neighbouring Ukraine, including Kiev's request for delivery of Western-made heavy battle tanks.
After the meeting, top national security official Jacek Siewiera said decisions were taken as to current and future support to Ukraine but did not provide any details.
Earlier, a presidential aide said that Kiev’s request for German-made Leopard 2 tanks which Poland, among other countries, uses, would be on the agenda.
Russia launches criminal probes
Russia's Investigative Committee said in a statement that its chief Alexander Bastrykin ordered the launch of a criminal case against Russian film and theatre actor Artur Smolyaninov, who left the country after Moscow's forces attacked Ukraine and repeatedly spoke out against the war.
According to the statement, Smolyaninov "made a series of statements directed against Russia in an interview with a Western media outlet." The Investigative Committee didn't clarify which of Smolyaninov's actions constituted a criminal offence and what charges it would bring against him.