The situation is “complicating” on the ground in the face of Russian troops in Ukraine, which is again the target of intense bombing, President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged on Saturday.
“During the 346 days of this war, I often said that the situation on the front lines was difficult. And that the situation was getting more complicated”he said in his daily message.
“Now we are at such a moment again. A moment when the occupier is mobilizing more and more of its forces to break our defense. It is very difficult now in Bakhmout, Vougledar, Lyman (in the east, editor’s note) and in other regions”added the head of the Ukrainian state.
“The enemy is regrouping in certain areas. It is concentrating its main efforts on conducting offensive operations in the directions of Kupiansk, Lyman, Bakhmout, Avdiivka and Novopavlivka”had warned the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense shortly before.
In the Donetsk region, artillery fire “massive” targeted Saturday morning Avdiivka, on the eastern front line, after Kramatorsk, another city highly coveted by the Russians, was hit overnight by rockets, Ukrainian authorities reported.
In the past 24 hours, in the southern province of Zaporizhia alone, shells have fallen on “civil infrastructure” located on the territories of 26 localities, according to the same sources.
Strikes also continued on Kherson, a major southern city taken and then abandoned by the Russians.
First Canadian Leopard 2
kyiv, which fears a new major Russian attack, is impatiently awaiting the delivery of the weapons promised by the West.
On Saturday, Canada shipped the first of its pledged Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.
Western weapons will not be used for attacks on Russian territory, assured German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in an interview with the weekly picture on sunday. There is “consensus” on this point with Mr. Zelensky, he said.
kyiv’s allies have taken new steps in military support for Ukraine by pledging to provide heavy tanks and longer-range rockets in particular.
The new US military aid, amounting to 2.2 billion dollars, includes in this regard rockets which could almost double the extent of the field of action of the Ukrainian strike force, according to the Pentagon.
These are in particular GLSDB (Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb), small-diameter devices fired from the ground that can reach a target located 150 km away and therefore threaten Russian positions behind the front lines.
At the same time, Paris announced that France and Italy would provide a medium-range surface-to-air defense system MAMBA in the spring to help Ukraine “defend against attacks by drones, missiles and Russian planes”.
As for Portugal, it too is willing to send German-made Leopard 2 heavy tanks to the Ukrainians.
Mr. Zelensky also mentioned on Saturday, without specifying them, the “very important things” which he was preparing with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, following a conversation the two men had just had.
He took the opportunity to salute the fact that “now in the UK our guys have already started training on Challenger tanks”of which London has promised to deliver 14 copies to its country.
A European embargo on petroleum products exported by sea is also due to come into force on Sunday, a measure “negative” who go “further unbalance“the markets, had lamented the Kremlin.