War Archive 2022 02/24 Monitoring Russian and Ukraine War.

[Saif]

Shelling in Pokrovsk as Russia inches closer

Russian shelling killed one person in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk on Sunday, local authorities said, as Moscow’s troops inched closer to the key logistics hub...

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Shelling in Pokrovsk as Russia inches closer
Agence France-Presse . Kyiv, Ukraine 16 September, 2024, 00:00

Russian shelling killed one person in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk on Sunday, local authorities said, as Moscow’s troops inched closer to the key logistics hub.

More than 20,000 people have fled the city since August, while Russian strikes over the past two weeks have cut off water and electricity to many of its remaining residents.

‘Around 11:00am (0800 GMT), the enemy shelled the western part of the city. Unfortunately, one person died,’ Pokrovsk’s military administration said on Telegram.

Separately, a Russian air strike sparked a fire at a multi-storey residential building in the northeastern city of Kharkiv on Sunday, officials said.

‘At the moment, there are almost 30 wounded, including children,’

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram.

Russia has been advancing towards Pokrovsk for months, getting to within 10 kilometres of its eastern outskirts, according to the local administration.

The city lies on the intersection of rail and road routes that supply Ukrainian troops and towns across the eastern frontline and has long been a target for Moscow’s army.

Russian strikes damaged two overpasses in the city earlier this week, including one that connected Pokrovsk to the neighbouring town of Myrnograd, local media reported.​

 

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Ukrainian drones hit west Russia arms depot

Ukrainian drones struck an arms depot in Russia’s western Tver region early yesterday, sparking a massive blaze that led to the evacuation of nearby residents, a Ukrainian security source said.

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Ukrainian drones hit west Russia arms depot
Massive blaze reported in western Tver region; Russia downs 54 Ukrainian drones launched overnight

Ukrainian drones struck an arms depot in Russia's western Tver region early yesterday, sparking a massive blaze that led to the evacuation of nearby residents, a Ukrainian security source said.

Videos posted on Russian social media showed a fireball erupting into the night sky, while a shockwave spread out below. Another video showed columns of smoke and flames rising over a body of water.

The inferno prompted a "partial evacuation of residents" in the area, while 150 firefighters and rescuers worked to contain the blaze, Tver region governor Igor Rudenya said.

Residents who had evacuated Toropets were later allowed to return, he said in a post several hours later. While some people suffered minor injuries, no-one was killed, he said.

A source in Ukraine's security services claimed responsibility.

Ukrainian drones "wiped out a large warehouse of the main missile and artillery directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defence in the town of Toropets, Tver region," the source told AFP.

"The warehouse contained missiles for Iskander tactical missile systems, Tochka-U tactical missile systems, guided aerial bombs and artillery ammunition. After the hits by Ukrainian drones, an extremely powerful detonation began," it added.

According to the source, the fire spread over an area six kilometres wide (four miles).

Toropets is just under 400 kilometres (250 miles) northwest of Moscow.

In 2018, Russia's then deputy defence minister Dmitry Bulgakov said an armoury for housing missiles and explosives would be built in the town, but it was not immediately clear if this had been hit.

Russia said yesterday it had downed 54 Ukrainian drones launched overnight, half over the Kursk region where Ukraine forces launched a major cross-border offensive in August.

Ukraine does not typically claim direct responsibility for attacks in Russia, but often welcomes them, arguing they are fair retaliation for strikes Moscow has inflicted on its territory since the war began in 2022.

Meanwhile, Russia's counter-offensive to retake territory captured by Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region has been "stopped", a spokesman from Ukraine's military administration set up in the area told AFP yesterday.

Russia earlier this month said it had seized several villages back from Ukraine in the Kursk region, where Kyiv has held on to swathes of land since its surprise incursion in early August.

"They tried to attack from the flanks, but they were stopped there," spokesman Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky told AFP.

"The situation was stabilised and today everything is under control, they are not successful," he said.

Dmytrashkivsky also said there were "several thousand" Russian civilians in areas occupied by Ukrainian troops.

"In some settlements there are more than 100 people, more than 200, more than 500," he said.

Russia has not said how many of its civilians remain in the Kyiv-controlled areas, saying only that around 130,000 have fled.

The Ukrainian military official admitted "some minor success" by Moscow.​

 

[Saif]

Russian advance in Kursk region ‘stopped’

Russia’s counter-offensive to retake territory captured by Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region has been ‘stopped’, a spokesman from Ukraine’s military administration set up in the area said on Wednesday...

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Russian advance in Kursk region ‘stopped’
Agence France-Presse . Kyiv, Ukraine 19 September, 2024, 00:31

Russia’s counter-offensive to retake territory captured by Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region has been ‘stopped’, a spokesman from Ukraine’s military administration set up in the area said on Wednesday.

Russia earlier this month said it had seized several villages back from Ukraine in the Kursk region, where Kyiv has held on to swathes of land since its surprise incursion in early August.

‘They tried to attack from the flanks, but they were stopped there,’ spokesman Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky said.

‘The situation was stabilised and today everything is under control, they are not successful,’ he said.

Dmytrashkivsky also said there were ‘several thousand’ Russian civilians in areas occupied by Ukrainian troops.

‘In some settlements there are more than 100 people, more than 200, more than 500,’ he said.

Russia has not said how many of its civilians remain in the Kyiv-controlled areas, saying only that around 1,30,000 have fled.

The Ukrainian military official admitted ‘some minor success’ by Moscow.

‘The Russians entered one of the settlements. They started fighting for another settlement, but that was it,’ he said.

AFP was not able to verify these claims.

Dmytrashkivsky also claimed that Russian strikes on the area as it tries to re-seize the land have killed ‘23 civilians’ since the end of August, saying they are ‘dying with the Ukrainian military.’

He said the civilians are ‘not allowed to leave’ because ‘the situation must be controlled’ but are allowed to ‘move around’ the area.

They can ‘visit each other, eat there, unite somewhere, dig potatoes now, work in the garden,’ Dmytrashkivsky said.

The area held by Ukraine has been described as forested and largely rural small settlements.

He said the only way that the civilians could be allowed to leave to Russian-controlled territory would be if Ukraine and Russia ‘agree, through international organisations that deal with these issues, to open a green corridor under the supervision of observers.’

Kyiv this week invited the UN to verify the situation of the area it holds in the Kursk region, infuriating Moscow.

Dmytrashkivsky said food into the area is brought from the neighbouring Ukrainian Sumy region.

‘The Sumy regional administration allocates funds for bread on a weekly basis. The armed forces provide water, the administration gives food packages,’ he said.

‘Nothing works there, no shops, no pharmacy, nothing.’​

 

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70,000 Russian soldiers killed in war against Ukraine

The BBC and the independent Russian news site Mediazona said on Friday they had documented the deaths of around 70,000 Russian soldiers since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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70,000 Russian soldiers killed in war against Ukraine
Agence France-Presse . Warsaw 20 September, 2024, 21:26

Russia is boosting its army size to 1.5 million active service personnel due to `threats' along its borders, including hostility in the West, the Kremlin said on September 17, 2024. | AFP photo

The BBC and the independent Russian news site Mediazona said on Friday they had documented the deaths of around 70,000 Russian soldiers since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The toll comes from publicly available information such as official statements, death notices in the media and announcements on social media, as well as tombstones in Russian cemeteries.

‘We have identified the names of 70,112 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine but the actual number is believed to be considerably higher,’ the BBC said.

‘Some families do not share details of their relatives’ deaths publicly — and our analysis does not include names we were unable to check, or the deaths of militia in Russian-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine,’ the British broadcaster added.

The same two organisations had put the toll at 66,000 in mid-August.

Mediazona and another independent Russian news site, Meduza, have also analysed official data from notaries on inheritance cases.

This has led them to estimate that the military death toll could be much higher — at 1,20,000.

The toll is considered secret in Russia. Ukraine also communicates very little about losses for fear of demoralising its citizens after more than two and a half years of Russia’s invasion.

In February, president Volodymyr Zelensky said around 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had died, although analysts and observers have said they believe the real number to be much higher.

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the war had killed or injured a total of one million soldiers on both sides.

‘A confidential Ukrainian estimate from earlier this year put the number of dead Ukrainian troops at 80,000 and the wounded at 4,00,000, according to people familiar with the matter.

‘Western intelligence estimates of Russian casualties vary, with some putting the number of dead as high as nearly 2,00,000 and wounded at around 4,00,000,’ it said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday he hopes US president Joe Biden will support his plan to end the war with Russia, ahead of a trip to Washington.

Zelensky has promised to present his so-called ‘victory plan’ to end the fighting, which has killed thousands, to Biden in the coming days.

‘I really hope that he will support this plan,’ Zelensky said during a press conference with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen in Kyiv.

‘The plan is designed for decisions that will have to happen from October to December. We would like that very much. Then we believe that the plan will work,’ he added.

Zelensky will present the plan to the United States after a summer of intense fighting, with Moscow advancing in eastern Ukraine and Kyiv holding on to parts of Russia’s Kursk region.

The Ukrainian leader is due to meet Biden and presidential candidate Kamala Harris — while Kyiv also says he plans to meet her Republican election rival Donald Trump.

Zelensky has also said he aims to host another international peace summit outlining his vision to end the war in November, to which Russia will be invited.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow will only enter peace talks if Ukraine surrenders four of its regions.​

 

[Saif]

Kyiv says struck ammo depots in Russia

Ukraine said on Saturday it had successfully struck two Russian weapons depots in the southern Krasnodar and western Tver regions, with Moscow announcing more than 1,000 evacuations...

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Kyiv says struck ammo depots in Russia
Agence France-Presse . Kyiv 22 September, 2024, 00:45

Ukraine said on Saturday it had successfully struck two Russian weapons depots in the southern Krasnodar and western Tver regions, with Moscow announcing more than 1,000 evacuations.

Kyiv regularly hits Russian infrastructure with drones as Moscow’s offensive drags on for more than two and a half years.

The Ukrainian army said it had hit a depot near the city of Tikhoretsk in Krasnodar, calling it one of Moscow’s ‘three largest ammunition storage bases’ important to the Russian army’s logistics for its Ukraine invasion.

It also said it struck an arsenal in Tver region’s Oktyabrsky village, resulting in a ‘fire and detonation’.

The governor of the Krasnodar region, Veniamin Kondratyev, announced the evacuation of 1,200 people after a drone attack had caused a fire that ‘spread to explosive objects’ near Tikhoretsk.

Videos on social media showed a massive explosion in the dark resembling fireworks at first before blowing up loudly, with online reports that an ammunition depot was struck.

Kondratyev called it a ‘terrorist attack by the Kyiv regime’ and said an unnamed village near the fire had been evacuated, with most people staying with relatives but others placed in temporary accommodation in Tikhoretsk.

Videos on social media later showed sirens ringing around the city of some 50,000 people in the daylight, with smoke rising into the air in the distance.

AFP could not immediately verify the authenticity of the images.

Krasnodar is separated from occupied Ukraine by the Azov Sea and had been relatively spared from the type of attacks on Russian border or other southern regions, but has seen increased attacks over the last year.

Authorities in the western Tver region also announced a night-time drone attack near the city of Toropets, which lies in the western part of the region.

Its governor Igor Rudenya said the ‘consequences of falling debris’ from the attack were being ‘cleared’.

He said there was no evacuation in Toropets but announced a temporary closure of the federal M-9 highway, promising it will reopen soon.

The attack also caused some disruption on passenger trains, with railway services saying a train going from Moscow to the western city of Pskov was sent on an alternative route, while another train was delayed.

Russia’s defence ministry earlier said it had downed 101 Ukrainian drones, mostly over the border Bryansk region and 18 over Krasnodar.

Russia has recently announced shooting down Ukrainian drones almost daily.​