Russia claims ‘improved’ position on north-east Ukraine front line

Kharkiv – Russia said on Friday that its forces had “improved” their offensive positions around two settlements near the town of Kupiansk in Ukraine’s north-eastern Kharkiv region.

Kupiansk and the surrounding areas of the Kharkiv region were recaptured by Kyiv’s forces in September, but Moscow has since pushed back into the region.

The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces have “improved the tactical situation” on the front line near Vilshana and Pershotravneve.

Separately, it said its troops struck a “temporary base for foreign mercenaries” in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, without providing further details.

Ukraine on Thursday urged civilians near the north-eastern front line to evacuate as Russia ramped up an assault to capture territory already seized once during the conflict.

“Given the difficult security situation and the increasing amount of shelling by Russian terrorist forces in Kupiansk community, you have the opportunity to evacuate to a safer place,” the city administration said.

It said residents could evacuate to Kharkiv, some 90km west, where they would have the option to move to safer regions, and urged children, the elderly and the sick to leave.

“Do not neglect your safety and the safety of your loved ones,” said the statement.

Trading blows

On Friday, both sides again fired missiles and sent killer drones targeting mostly civilian sites.

A Russian missile strike crashed into the grounds of a house in the western Ukrainian region of Ivano-Frankivsk, killing an eight-year-old boy, the governor and state prosecutors said.

“There are wounded (people), including a child who was brought to hospital in critical condition. Medics did everything possible, but unfortunately the child’s life could not be saved,” Governor Svitlana Onyshchuk wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukraine’s air force said Russian forces fired four Kinzhal hypersonic missiles at an airfield in western Ukraine. It said it shot down one of the missiles.

“The rest hit near the airfield. Civilian facilities and infrastructure were hit, and one of the missiles hit a residential area,” it said.

Russia, on the other hand, said it destroyed a Ukrainian drone over the western outskirts of Moscow, the latest in a growing number of aerial attacks on the capital.

“An attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack using an unmanned aerial vehicle on a facility in Moscow was thwarted,” the Russian Defence Ministry said, adding that there was no damage or casualties as a result of the incident.

Largely spared in the early part of the conflict, Moscow has seen a surge in attacks in recent months.

“Drones are flying yet again above Moscow,” said Mr Artemy Dusilov, a 21-year-old tech student who biked with a friend to see where the drone had fallen. “They keep us in fear a bit.”

Friday’s attack was the latest in a series of Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow in the past week.

On Thursday, Russia said it had downed two drones headed for Moscow, a day after two others were destroyed on approach.

At the start of August, an office block in the capital’s main business district, Moscow City, was struck twice within days by debris from a downed drone strike.

Mr Alexei Benedesyuk, a 54-year-old driver, was standing next to the cordoned-off area, a few hundred metres away from his house.

“It’s already happened: Moscow City, and the Kremlin... It will still happen and I think more than once,” he said.

But in the overall exchange, Russia continues to inflict heavier damage and claim more casualties.

In the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, a Russian strike on a civilian building killed at least one person and wounded 14 others on Thursday.

Among the wounded were a three-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy.

“A fire broke out in a civilian building after the occupiers hit it with a missile. One person is currently reported dead,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram.

Evacuations under way

Mr Sergiy Cherevaty, a spokesman for Ukraine’s eastern forces, confirmed to national television that Russian forces were trying to break through in the Kupiansk area.

“The situation remains difficult but under control,” he added.

“The evacuation started yesterday, when the order was signed,” said Kupiansk city military administration head Andriy Besedin on national television.

Residents could refuse to go but had to submit a written statement to the authorities, he added, and local officials were considering forcing the evacuation of children “if the escalation continues and the shelling increases”.

“It looks like the Russians are erasing places in the Kupiansk area,” said Professor Rostyslav Melnykiv, from a university in Kharkiv.

“People are in danger of losing their lives, not just their homes,” he told AFP.

One resident in the small town of Kivsharivka just outside Kupiansk said she was preparing to evacuate with her children, while her husband refused to leave in order to care for his elderly mother.

“It’s hard to leave them behind,” the resident said by phone.

In Russia, the governor of the Bryansk region said on Thursday that two people were killed after Ukraine shelled the small village of Chausy, about 5km from the border.

Russian regions bordering Ukraine have repeatedly accused Kyiv’s forces of indiscriminate shelling that has damaged infrastructure and caused civilian deaths.

Ukraine launched its counteroffensive in June after stockpiling Western weapons, but has struggled to make major breakthroughs.

On the other side of the front line, an oil depot in Ukraine’s western Rivne region was destroyed during a “massive drone attack” on Thursday, governor Vitaliy Koval said.

Tensions have also risen on the Black Sea since Russia exited a deal allowing safe passage for grain exports.

In a challenge to Russia, which announced in July that it would consider any ships nearing Ukraine in the Black Sea as potential military cargo carriers, Ukraine said it had opened maritime routes for civilian vessels from several southern ports.

Ukrainian Navy spokesman Oleg Chalyk said a first ship would take the newly open route “in the near future”.

And in Washington, President Joe Biden’s administration asked Congress for more than US$13 billion (S$17.5 billion) in new military spending for Ukraine. AFP, REUTERS