At least 11 Russians were killed Saturday in a firefight that highlighted the demanding situations posed by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hasty move, just as Ukrainian troops began an offensive to retake spaces in the south of the country that were illegally annexed through Moscow.
The Russian Defense Ministry said two men opened fire on volunteer infantrymen at an education consultation in western Russia, killing 11 of them and wounding 15 others before dying themselves. The ministry called it a terrorist attack.
Russia has lost ground in the seven weeks since the Ukrainian armed forces introduced their counteroffensive in the south. This week, the Kremlin unveiled what is believed to be its largest coordinated air and missile strikes on Ukraine’s key infrastructure since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
In the wake of the attacks, a missile strike on Saturday severely destroyed a key electrical installation in Ukraine’s capital region, the country’s grid operator said. After developing setbacks, the Russian military has worked to cut off power and water in remote populated areas. while repelling Ukrainian counterattacks in occupied spaces.
In the Zaporizhzhia region, Governor Oleksandr Starukh said the Russian military had carried out movements with Iranian suicide drones and long-range S-300 missiles. Some experts said the Russian military’s use of surface-to-air missiles may reflect a dearth of accuracy. weapons committed to achieving floor targets.
Dmytro Pocishchuk, a doctor at a hospital in the capital Zaporizhzhia region that has treated dozens of people injured in Russian attacks in recent weeks, said other people had sought protection outdoors or in the basement of his building when family explosions began at 5:15 a. m. on Saturday.
“If Ukraine stops, these bombings and killings will continue. We surrendered to the Russian Federation,” Pocishchuk said several hours later. He put a small Ukrainian flag on the broken windshield of his badly damaged car.
The governor of the Kyiv region, Oleksiy Kuleba, said the missile that hit a power plant on Saturday morning killed or wounded someone. Citing security, Ukrainian officials identified the site, one of many infrastructure targets the Russian military tried to destroy after a truck bomb exploded on Oct. 8 that breached the bridge connecting Russia to the annexed Crimean peninsula.
Ukrainian power transmission company Ukrenergo said repair crews were working to repair the electric power service, but warned citizens about possible new outages.
“Putin can hope that by expanding the angst of the Ukrainian people, President (Volodymyr) Zelensky will be more amenable to negotiating a deal for Russia to retain some stolen territories in the east or in Crimea,” said Ian Williams, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based political organization. “A quick look at history shows that strategic bombing of civilians is a futile means of achieving a political goal. “
This week’s large-scale retaliatory strikes, which included Iran’s use of self-destructive explosive drones, killed dozens of people. The moves affected residential buildings and infrastructure such as power plants in Kyiv, Lviv in western Ukraine and other cities. that he had noticed few movements in recent months.
Putin said Friday that Moscow saw no need for more major attacks, but that his military would carry out targeted strikes. He said that of the 29 targets the Russian military planned in this week’s attacks, seven were not broken and would be eliminated. .
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based tank, interpreted Putin’s comments as an intention to counter complaints from pro-war Russian bloggers who “welcomed the resumption of movements in Ukrainian cities, but warned that a short crusade would be ineffective. “. “
In the southern Kherson region, one of the first regions of Ukraine to fall to Russia after the invasion and which Putin illegally designated as Russian territory last month, Ukrainian forces continued their counteroffensive on Saturday.
Kyiv’s military reported that it regained 75 towns and cities in the past month, but said momentum had slowed as fighting became the kind of grueling back and forth that characterized the months-long Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine. Donbass Region.
On Saturday, Ukrainian troops tried to advance south along the banks of the Dnieper River toward the regional capital, also called Kherson, but gained ground, according to Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Moscow-based administration in the occupied region.
“The lines of defense worked and the situation remained under the full control of the Russian military,” he wrote on his messaging app channel.
Kremlin-backed local leaders on Thursday called on civilians to leave the domain under their protection and give Russian troops more maneuverability. Stremousov reminded them that they can evacuate to Crimea and cities in southwestern Russia, where Moscow offered flexible accommodation to citizens who agreed to leave. .
Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for Russia’s Defense Ministry, said the army had destroyed five crossing points on the Inhulets River, the direction Ukrainian fighters could take to advance toward the Kherson region.
Konashenkov claimed that Russian troops have also blocked Ukrainian attempts to break through Russian defenses near Lyman, a town in Ukraine’s annexed Donetsk region that the Ukrainians recaptured two weeks ago in a primary Kremlin defeat.
Amid the fighting, two men from an unidentified ex-Soviet country fired on volunteer infantrymen at a firing range in the Belgorod region, bordering Ukraine, and were killed by backfire, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The shooting comes amid a mobilization ordered by Putin to bolster Russian forces in Ukraine, a hasty and poorly executed move that sparked protests and forced thousands of people to flee Russia. Some of the mobilized reservists were sent to the front without education and equipment, according to activists and media reports.
Putin said Friday that more than 220,000 reservists have already been called up as part of an effort to recruit 300,000.
North and east of Kherson, Russian shelling killed two civilians in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Governor Valentyn Resnichenko said. dozens of major buildings, several department stores, and a shipping facility.
Fighting near the nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, was a constant fear during the nearly eight-month war. it will eventually overheat and cause a catastrophic radiation leak.
International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said fears had eased on Friday night as Ukrainian engineers had controlled after several weeks to repair emergency lines of force that can serve as a “buffer” in the event of additional war. related blackouts.
“Working in very difficult conditions, the operational personnel of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant are doing their best to strengthen their fragile off-site force scenario,” Grossi said. “The recovery of the emergency force connection is a positive step in this regard. “, the overall nuclear safety and security scenario remains precarious. “
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