Moscow said its military was pushing back Kyiv’s troops in the Russian border region of Kursk and in eastern Ukraine, as it launched more than 100 attack drones at Kyiv and other parts of the country, damaging critical infrastructure sites in three areas.
Ukraine acknowledged that its forces had retreated from most of Velyka Novosilka in Donetsk region, but said they were still inflicting heavy casualties and damage on Moscow’s troops from the western edge of the town.
“Any other actions could have led to their encirclement and unnecessary losses among the Ukrainian defenders. So, as of now, the Russians have entered a significant part of the settlement, while Ukrainians hold certain parts of the outskirts to prevent them advancing further,” Ukrainian military spokesman Viktor Tregubov said on Monday.
Kyiv’s forces claimed that Russia would gain little by seizing most of Velyka Novosilka and would now face heavy Ukrainian fire from across the Mokri Yaly river on the western flank of the town, further hindering any bid to push on towards the border between Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions, which is about 20km from the town.
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The loss of another longstanding logistics hub in Donetsk region is the latest blow to Ukraine’s military, however, following the occupation earlier this month of Kurakhove, a town about 40km to the northeast.
Russia’s advance in parts of Donetsk region has accelerated in recent months, and its forces appear to be bypassing the heavily fortified small city of Pokrovsk, 40km north of Kurakhove, in a bid to cut its supply lines and force Ukraine to abandon it.
Moscow said its troops had also retaken the village of Nikolayevo-Darino in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces still hold large swathes of territory after launching a surprise attack on the area last summer.
Air defences systems boomed around Kyiv in the early hours of Monday, when Ukraine said Russia launched 104 explosive drones against the capital and other parts of the country. Ninety-six were intercepted or jammed, but apartment blocks were hit and three regions said critical infrastructure was damaged.
At Holocaust memorial events in Poland, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that “the evil that seeks to destroy the lives of entire nations still exists in the world today ... It is everyone’s mission to do everything possible to ensure that evil does not prevail”.
Russian congratulated Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko on extending his 31-year rule after elections in which his officials said he took 86.8 per cent of votes.
The European Union called it “a blatant affront to democracy” and exiled Belarusian pro-democracy leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said: “As long as Belarus is under Lukashenko and Putin’s control, there will be a constant threat to the peace and security of the entire region.”
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