- Three dead in Russian attacks on Kherson – Governor
- Russian forces shelled Vuhledar again to the east
- Zelenskyy urges allies to expedite arms shipments
- Zelenskyy urges Macron to ban Russia from Paris games
Kyiv, Ukraine, Jan 30 (Portal) – Russian missile strikes killed three people in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson while fighting raged in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russia again shelled the key city of Vuhledar, Ukrainian officials said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine faces a difficult situation in Donetsk and needs faster arms supplies and new types of weapons, just days after allies agreed to supply Kyiv with heavy battle tanks.
“The situation is very difficult. Bakhmut, Vuhledar and other sectors in Donetsk region – there are constant Russian attacks,” Zelenskyy said in a video address late Sunday.
“Russia wants the war to drag on and drain our strength. So we must make time our weapon. We need to speed up events, speed up deliveries and open up new weapon options for Ukraine.”
The regional administration said three people were killed and six injured in Russian attacks on Kherson on Sunday, which damaged a hospital and a school.
Russian troops had occupied Kherson shortly after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and held the city until Ukrainian troops recaptured it in November. Since its liberation, the city has been regularly shelled by Russian positions across the Dnipro River.
Later on Sunday, a rocket hit an apartment building in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, killing an elderly woman, regional governor Oleh Synehubov said.
A Portal image from the scene showed a fire engulfing part of an apartment building in the country’s second most populous city.
Russia on Saturday accused the Ukrainian military of deliberately attacking a hospital in a Russian-controlled area in eastern Ukraine, killing 14 people. There was no reaction to the allegations from Ukraine.
Ukraine’s General Staff said in a statement Monday that Ukrainian defenders repelled a Russian attack in Bakhmut, the focus of Moscow’s offensive in the eastern Donetsk region, and in several other cities in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
In a statement by the Ukrainian military the previous evening, increased fighting in Vuhledar, southwest of Bakhmut, had been pointed out in the past few days.
Denis Pushilin, the administrator of the Russian-controlled parts of Donetsk, said Monday that his forces had gained a foothold in Vuhledar, Russia’s TASS news agency reported.
Ukrainian military analyst and Colonel Mykola Salamakha told Ukrainian Radio NV that Russian troops are launching waves of attacks on Vuhledar.
“From this location we control practically the entire rail system used by the Russians for logistics… The city is on high ground and an extremely strong defense hub has been created there,” he said.
“This is a repeat of the situation in Bakhmut – wave after wave of Russian troops are being crushed by Ukrainian forces.”
[1/6] Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy talks to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (not pictured) over the telephone line, amid the Russian attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, January 25, 2023. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Portal
Portal was unable to verify the battlefield reports.
stockpiles of weapons
Sunday’s civilian casualties came three days after at least 11 people were killed in rocket attacks seen in Kyiv as the Kremlin’s response to pledges by Ukraine’s allies to supply main battle tanks.
After weeks of bickering, Germany and the United States said last week they would send dozens of tanks to Ukraine to help push back Russian forces and pave the way for other countries to follow suit.
Although Ukraine had been promised a total of 321 heavy tanks by several countries, it could take months for them to appear on the battlefield, according to Kiev’s ambassador to France.
Ukraine is keen to speed up shipments of heavy weapons as both warring factions are expected to launch spring offensives in the coming weeks.
Talks are also underway between Kyiv and its allies over Ukraine’s demands for long-range missiles, a senior Zelenskyy aide said on Saturday. Ukraine has also requested US F16 fighter jets.
German arms maker Rheinmetall is poised to sharply ramp up production of tank and artillery ammunition to meet demand in Ukraine and the West, and could start producing HIMARS multiple rocket launchers in Germany, CEO Armin Papperger told Portal.
HIMARS systems are currently being manufactured in the United States and are being used to devastating effect by the Ukrainian military.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday visited South Korea, a US ally and major arms exporter, and urged Seoul to increase military support to Ukraine.
Russian RIA news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Monday as saying there was no point for Russia to talk to Kyiv or its Western “puppet masters” since the United States had decided to supply tanks to Ukraine.
On Sunday, however, a Kremlin spokesman told RIA that Russian President Vladimir Putin is open to contacts with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Scholz was quoted by the Berliner Tagesspiegel on Sunday as saying: “I will also speak to Putin again – because it is necessary to speak”.
“The responsibility lies with Putin to withdraw troops from Ukraine to end this horrific, senseless war that has already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives,” he added.
Russia says it launched its “military special operation” in Ukraine to repel a hostile West and “denazify” the country. Ukraine and its allies say the invasion was an unprovoked act of aggression.
Zelenskyy said he had sent a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron as part of his campaign to keep Russian athletes out of the Paris Olympics. He said allowing Russia to take part in the 2024 Paris Games would be tantamount to showing that “terror is somehow acceptable”.
Reporting by Portal bureaus; writing by Stephen Coates; Edited by Simon Cameron-Moore and Himani Sarkar
Our standards: The Thomson Portal Trust Principles.