Ukrainian forces claim to have removed a bridge that affected Russian supply lines to the southern Kherson region.
The Russian-occupied region has been attacked by Ukrainian troops as part of a counter-offensive after it was seized by Vladimir Putin’s forces in the early stages of the war.
As part of the attack, the Antoniv bridge was reportedly put out of action following long-range missile attacks a few weeks ago. Now a dam structure in Nova Kakhovka cannot be used after attacks by Ukrainian troops.
“The Russians no longer have any ability to fully hand over their equipment,” wrote Sergii Khlan, a deputy of the Kherson regional council, on Facebook. This claim has not been independently confirmed.
In addition, police in Ukraine are investigating more than 26,000 possible war crimes committed by Russian soldiers and suspect even more will be uncovered as the areas are liberated, Sky News reported.
Ukraine’s Interior Minister Denis Monastirsky told the broadcaster: “Every day we register the death of many civilians. These are the crimes committed and committed by them [Russia] in the occupied territories’.
He added that Ukrainian authorities expect atrocities to be uncovered in cities such as Mariupol and Severodonetsk, which are currently occupied by Russian forces.
Meanwhile, the Russian military struck residential areas in Ukraine overnight. A Russian rocket attack on the city of Kramatorsk killed three people and wounded 13 others on Friday, according to the mayor.
The attack came less than a day after 11 other rockets were fired at the city, one of two main Ukrainian-held cities in Donetsk province, the focus of Russia’s ongoing offensive to retake the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine.
A man examines a destroyed Russian tank in Bucha region. Moscow continues to launch fierce attacks on Ukraine, especially in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv and Kherson
(Daniel Ceng Shou-Yi/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock)
Russia’s defense ministry said on Saturday that its forces had taken control of Pisky, a village on the outskirts of the city of Donetsk, the provincial capital claimed by pro-Moscow separatists since 2014.
Russian troops and Kremlin-backed rebels are seeking to seize Ukrainian-held areas north and west of the city of Donetsk to expand the separatists’ self-proclaimed republic.
Map of the occupied territory in Ukraine
(Press Association images)
But the Ukrainian military said on Saturday that its forces had prevented an overnight advance on the smaller towns of Avdiivka and Bakhmut.
The Ukrainian governor of neighboring Luhansk province, which is part of the battle for the Donbass region and was captured by Russian forces last month, says Ukrainian troops still hold a small area.
Writing on Telegram, Luhansk Governor Serhii Haidai said defense troops remained holed up in an oil refinery on the outskirts of Lisichansk, a town Moscow claims it has captured, and also control areas near a village.
“The enemy is burning the ground at the entrances to the Luhansk region because they cannot overcome (Ukrainian resistance) these few kilometers,” Mr. Heidai said.
“It is difficult to count how many thousands of projectiles this territory of the free Luhansk region has withstood in the last month and a half.
A shell hole in a factory building damaged by a rocket in the small town of Merefa in the Kharkiv region
(EPA)
Further west, the governor of Dnipropetrovsk region reported new Russian shelling of the city of Nikopol, which is located across the Dnieper River from Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
Governor Yevgeny Yevtushenko did not specify whether Russian troops fired on Nikopol from the occupied Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.
Writing on Telegram, he said on Saturday that there were no casualties, but residential buildings, a power line and a gas pipeline were damaged.
Russia and Ukrainian officials have accused each other for days of shelling the Zaporizhia plant in violation of nuclear safety rules.
Additional reporting by AP
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