Russian forces intensified airstrikes in southern and eastern Ukraine on Friday, hitting critical infrastructure in Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, and Zaporizhia, sounding sirens across much of Ukraine.
Zaporizhia council secretary Anatolii Kurtiev said the city was attacked 17 times in the space of an hour, adding that it was the most intense period of attacks since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
Explosions were heard in various parts of the region, including Zaporizhia and Vinnytsia, while in the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region, local authorities warned of a drone strike, official sources said, quoted by Ukrainian news agencies.
The largest nuclear power plant in Europe is located in the Zaporizhia region and remains in the hands of Russia, which partially controls the area.
In Kharkiv, authorities are still trying to gather information about possible victims and the scale of the destruction, and mayor Ihor Terekhov said there could be disruptions to heating, electricity and water supplies.
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said Russian forces launched an offensive in the partially occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions, aiming to gain full control of the industrial zone, known as Donbass.
The pro-Russian authorities in Donetsk assured today that they will “soon” conquer the city of Marinka, near the regional capital.
“I’m not going to give any dates yet, but [Marinka] it will be launched soon,” the head of the Donetsk People’s Republic Denis Pushilin was quoted as saying by the official Russian news agency TASS.
Pushilin added that Ukrainian troops had built many fortifications in the city, some 25 kilometers from Donetsk, and that Russian forces were now “breaking through its defences” and already controlled part of Marinka.
In December, Pushilin had described as “difficult” the situation in Marinka, whose control is of great importance for the Russians, due to its proximity to the capital of the Donetsk region.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, participated in an extraordinary summit between Heads of State and Government of the European Union, in Brussels, which ended this morning.
Zelensky has been insisting in recent weeks on the need for the country to receive combat aircraft and today, before the leaders of the 27, he reiterated the request.
Western countries have so far resisted providing air assets to Ukraine, although France and the UK have not ruled out this possibility.
The Portuguese Prime Minister, António Costa, rejected the request, stressing that the fleet that Portugal has “is committed to different missions, of national sovereignty and guarantee of the integrity of the territory, interception missions” and also in the commitments with the Organization of the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO).
Source: TSF
