A hospital in Sievierodonetsk, in the Lugansk region of eastern Ukraine, was hit by an attack today. According to Lugansk governor Sergei Gaidai, a woman died.
“The Russians knew the hospital wasn’t empty,” Gaidai said. “There were patients with different conditions at doctors. And that didn’t stop her.”
According to Gaidai, “the destruction of the building is significant.” “Several floors were damaged at once.” The governor said this is one of two operating hospitals in the area. The other is located in the city of Lysychansk.
Attacks and Replies
Today Russia’s war in Ukraine has reached its 63rd day. Although Ukraine is still registering attacks by Russian forces, especially in the east and south of the country, it has reacted.
A building was hit by bombs in Avdiivka, a town in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
Image: Reproduction/Telegram/Pavlo Kyrylenko
The Ukrainian Armed Forces said that “only in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions,” separatist areas, “nine enemy attacks were repelled,” indicating the destruction of tanks, artillery systems and armored vehicles.
Bomb attacks caused fires in Avdiivka, a town about 700 kilometers from Kyiv. However, according to the military chief of the Donetsk region, the armed forces of Ukraine repelled an attempt by Russian troops to advance in that direction.
In the south, a bridge was hit today in the Odessa region, said the Ukrainian railway company, which is still assessing the “extent of damage to the infrastructure”.
Picture: UOL Art.No
Mariupol besieged
The situation in the region of the port city of Mariupol remains tense. According to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Russia is “exercising massive fire and blocking our units in the area of the Azovstal plant” where civilians are sheltering.
According to information from the UK’s Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, most Russian airstrikes on Mariupol are carried out “with unguided freefall bombs”. “These weapons reduce Russia’s ability to effectively discriminate when conducting attacks and increase the risk of civilian casualties.” The information could not be verified with independent sources.
areas occupied
The Russian army has captured several locations in eastern Ukraine in an offensive to seize control of the Donbass region, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said. Russian forces drove out Ukrainian army from Velyka Komyshuvakha and Zavody in Kharkiv region and took control of Zarichne and Novotoshkivske in Donetsk region.
Zarichne is just 50 kilometers from the regional center of Kramatorsk, where dozens of people died in a Russian attack on a train station a few weeks ago. The Defense Ministry warned that Russian forces in the central Zaporizhia region “continue the offensive against Nyzhnye and Orikhiv”.
ProRussian separatists have controlled the Donetsk and Lugansk regions since 2014, when the Russian government annexed the Crimean peninsula following protests that toppled the thenMoscowlinked Ukrainian president. Russia says the offensive in the east was aimed at creating a land link between separatistheld territory and the Black Sea Peninsula.
Moldova
Authorities in Moldova’s proRussian breakaway region of Transnistria said a village on the Ukrainian border, home to a large Russian army ammunition depot, has come under fire. “Several drones were sighted over the village of Cobasna during the night,” the Transnistrian “Ministry of Interior” said in a statement.
The same source also pointed out that on Wednesday morning “fire was registered towards Cobasna from Ukraine” with no casualties. Cobasna is two kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
The village houses a large Sovietera weapons depot controlled by Russian soldiers stationed in the area. The selfproclaimed “Republic” of Transnistria broke away from Moldova in 1992 after a brief war against that country. Since then, 1,500 Russian soldiers have been stationed in the region.
Fears have been growing for a few days that the war in Ukraine will spread to Transnistria. A Russian general recently claimed that the Kremlin’s offensive in Ukraine aims to create a corridor to that breakaway region.
The separatists reported a series of explosions in the selfproclaimed “Republic” on Monday and Tuesday. In response, Moldova announced measures to strengthen its security and called for calm among its population. Ukraine, in turn, accused Russia of wanting to “destabilize” Transnistria in order to justify military intervention.
(With Reuters, AFP, DW and Ansa)