Ukraine on Monday disputed information advanced by Russian officials and denied that Russian troops are advancing towards the eastern Ukrainian city of Vougledar, where fighting has recently intensified.
“Our units continue to advance (…). The units have established themselves in the east of Vougledar and work continues in the immediate vicinity,” Russia’s head of the Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, was quoted as saying Monday morning. by Russian agencies.
However, a spokesman for the Ukrainian army in this region, Yevgen Ierine, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the Russian attacks in the area had failed.
According to the same source, the Ukrainian forces managed to repel the Russians with “firearms and artillery”.
“The enemy was unsuccessful and withdrew. We did not lose our positions,” Yevgen Ierine said.
For his part, Denis Pushilin stated that the Ukrainian army has entrenched itself in an area that has “a large number of industrial facilities and tall buildings”, which facilitates defensive operations.
“We assume that the enemy will resist,” the representative continued.
The Russian Defense Ministry has only vaguely said that its troops “took up more advantageous positions” around Vougledar by inflicting losses on Ukrainian forces.
Vougledar, a mining city that had 15,000 inhabitants before the Russian military offensive, is located 150 kilometers south of Bakhmout, Donetsk province, one of the most intense war zones in Ukraine in recent months, with a high number of casualties from both the parts.
Denis Pushilin said “fierce fighting” was taking place near Bakhmout, but it was “too early” to talk about a siege of the city by Russian troops.
“The fighting continues, we are holding the defense lines by inflicting losses on them,” another Ukrainian military spokesman, Sergey Cherevaty, told AFP.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that Bakhmut, Vougledar and other areas of the Donetsk region were under “constant Russian attacks.”
The Kremlin (Russian presidency) has vowed to conquer the entire Donetsk region after claiming its annexation in September, along with three other Ukrainian regions: Lugansk in the east, Kherson and Zaporizhia in the south.
The military offensive launched on February 24, 2022 by Russia in Ukraine has so far caused the flight of more than 14 million people -6.5 million internally displaced persons and almost eight million to European countries-, according to the latest data from the UN, which catalogs this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since the Second World War (1939-1945).
Right now, 17.7 million Ukrainians need humanitarian aid and 9.3 million need food aid and shelter.
The Russian invasion – justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin as the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security – was condemned by the wider international community, which has responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and imposing Russia from the political point of view and economic sanctions.
The UN presented 7,110 civilian deaths and 11,547 wounded as confirmed since the start of the war, emphasizing that these figures are far below the real ones.
Source: TSF
