A Russian bomb on a blood transfusion center in Ukraine, in the eastern region of Kharkiv, on Saturday evening caused “deaths and injuries”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced. “This war crime says it all about Russian aggression. Beasts that destroy everything that simply allows us to live,” he denounced. “Our rescuers are putting out the fire,” he said.
The number of attacks has increased on both sides since Moscow refused in mid-July to renew a UN-brokered agreement that allowed Ukrainian grain exports.
Russia’s guided air bomb against a blood transfusion center in Ukraine. This evening, Kupiansk community in Kharkiv region. Dead and wounded are reported. My condolences! Our rescuers are extinguishing the fire. This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression.… pic.twitter.com/aCgxAbJx8P
Russian missiles hit buildings of Ukrainian aircraft manufacturer Motor Sich, a company “of strategic importance”, on Saturday evening. “A new Russian missile attack took place against our country… They hit Motor Sich and our Khmelnytsky region,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his daily address.
The Ukrainian state took control of the maker of aircraft and helicopter engines in November 2022, along with other “strategically important” companies, to help the war effort. The group’s headquarters are in Zaporijjia (south), a region partially occupied by Russian forces. It was not immediately known whether the Russian strikes had hit the Motor Sich headquarters, but the governor of this region, Yuri Malachko, had indicated earlier that the Russian attack had targeted an area on the outskirts of Motor Sich. town and caused a fire.
The Khmelnytsky region in western Ukraine, hundreds of kilometers from the front, is regularly targeted by Russian strikes and is home to a major Ukrainian military airfield.
Russia said on Saturday it took off one of its fighter jets to intercept a US Reaper drone it said was approaching its border over the Black Sea, and then turned back.
After “detecting an air target approaching the Russian state border” in the Black Sea, Moscow launched a Su-30 fighter jet, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Telegram.
“The Russian fighter crew identified the aerial target as a US Air Force MQ-9A Reaper reconnaissance drone,” the ministry added, noting that “on approaching the Russian fighter, the foreign reconnaissance has made a U-turn away from the border”.
The Russian fighter plane then returned to its airfield without incident, according to the same source. This type of incident involving Russian planes and Western aircraft is not uncommon, whether in the Black Sea or the Baltic Sea, against the backdrop of the conflict in Ukraine.
On Saturday, the Russian army claimed to have captured a village located in northeastern Ukraine. This region has been the scene of clashes with forces from Moscow for several weeks, while on the southern front, Russian troops are facing a Ukrainian counter-offensive and adopting a defensive position.
“In the Kupyansk sector, the village of Novoselivské […] was liberated thanks to the competent and professional actions of the Russian” units, the Ministry of Defense said on Telegram. This village had been taken over by the Ukrainians from Russian forces in December 2022.
On Friday, the Ukrainian army had indicated that it was facing Russian attacks in the areas of Kupiansk, Lyman and Svatové, in the northeastern part of the front. “The number of enemy attacks has increased. Heavy fighting is taking place,” Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar said on Telegram.
According to her, Russia’s objective is to “divert” Ukrainian forces to these areas and “break through the defenses”. “In the Kupiansk sector, the enemy has set itself the objective of regaining the territories lost last autumn,” when a lightning Ukrainian counter-offensive forced Russian troops to withdraw across the river oskil. In this sector, the Russian army said on Saturday that it had “carried out offensive actions on a broad front”, allowing it to “improve” its positions. At the end of July, the Russian troops had already claimed the capture of the locality of Serguiïvka, near Lyman.
Sergei Shoigu, the Russian Defense Minister, visited the area of the military operation in Ukraine to inspect a command post and talk to high-ranking officers, Moscow said. He was presented with a report on the current situation at the front and “thanked the commanders and [other] military personnel […] for successful offensive actions” in the Lyman area of eastern Ukraine , the Russian army said in a statement, without specifying when this trip took place.
President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted Thursday evening, August 3, that the Ukrainian counter-offensive was difficult, citing “very heavy” fighting in the key eastern areas of Lyman, Bakhmout and Avdiivka, but also on the southern front. He believes, however, that “whatever the enemy does, it is the Ukrainian army that dominates”.
Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, whose main base is in Sevastopol, Crimea, has been targeted several times since Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine began in February 2022, but attacks have escalated in recent years. weeks. On Tuesday, Russia claimed to have foiled a strike by three Ukrainian naval drones against patrol boats 340 kilometers southwest of Sevastopol. A similar operation had taken place a week earlier. “What’s going on in the Black Sea? Drones are changing the rules of the game,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak commented on X (ex-Twitter) on Friday, adding that they “destroy the value of the Russian fleet.”
Kiev, which launched a counter-offensive in early June to retake the territories conquered by Moscow, with modest progress so far, proclaims its intention to recover Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. Several drone attacks had already were launched against this peninsula at the end of July. On Sunday, the Russian authorities in Crimea notably claimed to have destroyed 25 of these devices. Since withdrawing last month from an agreement that allowed Ukraine to export its grain, Russia has been bombarding the Odessa region on the Black Sea.
In 2022, Ukraine recaptured swaths of territory around Kherson (South) and Kharkiv (North-East) after rapid counter-offensives. But Ukrainian forces now face entrenched and reinforced Russian defensive positions for months. Ukraine has warned that its current counter-offensive could be long and urged its allies to send more weapons.
A Russian oil tanker was hit by Ukrainian drones overnight from Friday to Saturday in the Black Sea’s Kerch Strait, briefly halting traffic on the strategic bridge linking Crimea to Russia, media said on Saturday. Russians. The ship was damaged and two tugs arrived on the scene, Russian state news agency Tass said, citing the Sea Rescue Center. According to the Moscow Times, it is the chemical tanker SIG, which subject to US sanctions for supplying fuel to Russian forces that came to the aid of Bashar al-Assad’s regime during the war in Syria.
The attack caused no injuries, according to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti, which quoted the Novorossisk relief coordination center. Previously, an official appointed by Russia in the Zaporizhia region (Ukraine), Vladimir Rogov, reported on Telegram that several crew members were injured by shards of glass.
Traffic on the bridge connecting the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow, to Russia was suspended for three hours before resuming early Saturday morning, according to the Highway Information Center. The Kerch Bridge is the only work of its kind that connects the peninsula to Russia and is used in particular to transport equipment to the Russian military on the Ukrainian front.