The situation in eastern Ukraine remains unclear, as fierce fighting is raging in several places. According to information from Kyiv, Russian shelling killed 8 civilians in Donetsk. Moscow, in turn, has accused the war opponent of killing 14 people in an attack on a clinic in Luhansk.
Scores of people lost their lives in bitter fighting in eastern Ukraine over the weekend. Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of deadly attacks in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The Ukrainian military also said on Sunday that it had repelled attacks on 14 locations in the Donetsk region.
Among them were incidents near the town of Blahodatne, the Ukrainian General Staff stated in its daily report. The Russian mercenary group Wagner had previously stated that their units had taken control of the village: “Blahodatne is under our control,” Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was quoted as saying by his press service. The Ministry of Defense in Moscow initially did not confirm Blahodatne’s capture.
Almost a year after the start of the aggressive war against Ukraine, Russia is trying to gain complete control of the Donetsk region. Like Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson, the Kremlin has already declared Donetsk annexed. Kyiv recently stated that Russian troops had intensified their attacks in the east, especially on the towns of Bakhmut and Wuhledar. Moscow has been trying for months to take Bakhmut. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday that the situation at the front was “extremely acute”, especially in the Donetsk region.
On Saturday, three civilians were killed and at least 14 others injured in a Russian attack on a residential area in the Donetsk city of Konstantynivka, according to the regional governor. Four multi-storey buildings, a hotel, garages and civilian cars were damaged, the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said in online networks.
Rescue workers and the police are on site “to help people and to document another crime committed by the Russian occupiers on our soil,” explained Kyrylenko. Photos he posted to Telegram showed apartment buildings with shattered windows and debris surrounding a burned-out vehicle. According to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Russian troops attacked Konstantinivka with multiple rocket launchers. A total of five civilians were killed in attacks in Donetsk on Saturday, Kyrylenko said on Sunday, including one person in the embattled town of Bakhmut.
According to a Ukrainian soldier, Russian soldiers are also advancing on Bakhmut, which they have been trying to take control of for months. “There is constant shooting, day and night, trying to find weaknesses in our defenses,” Yuri said while standing in a trench in Bakhmut. According to Ukrainian data, Russia is preparing a new offensive for the anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine. It is “no secret” that the Russian army is preparing a new wave of attacks for February 24, Secretary of the Ukrainian Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov told Radio Svoboda.
Russia, in turn, accused the Ukrainian army of attacking a hospital in the town of Novoaidar in the Luhansk region with US HIMARS rocket launchers on Saturday. “Among the patients and medical staff” there were 14 dead and 24 injured, the Russian army said. “A targeted missile attack” on a civilian medical facility is “without a doubt a serious war crime by the regime in Kyiv,” the ministry said in Moscow.
