Ukrainian troops defending the part of the city of Bakhmut (east) still under their control repelled 32 attacks by Russian troops on Monday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported today.
According to the same source, the attacks were aimed at “obtaining full control” of the municipality.
“In the direction of Bakhmut, the enemy is trying to take full control of the city and continues to attack,” reads a note from the General Staff.
“During the day, units of the (Ukrainian) Armed Forces repulsed 32 enemy attacks on the aforementioned front,” the institution added, also speaking of Russian bombings at various locations in the area.
The head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Yevgueni Prigozhin, on Monday announced the “legal” takeover of the city by the private army leading the Russian offensive in the Bakhmut municipal area.
Prigozhin himself acknowledged that the Ukrainian troops have not left the city and are concentrated in the western part.
According to today’s information from the Ukrainian General Staff, Russia has also launched attacks on Avdiivka and Marinka, two other cities on the eastern front that the occupying forces have been trying to take for months.
During the night, Russian forces attacked Ukrainian territory with 17 Iranian-made kamikaze drones, “presumably” launched from the east coast of the Sea of Azov.
Ukrainian Southern Command air defenses shot down 14 of these aircraft, preventing them from reaching the targets.
According to Southern Command, 13 drones were intercepted over Odessa province and another over Mykolaiv, both located in southern Ukraine.
One of the drones caused a fire in a private infrastructure in Odessa.
It is currently unknown whether there are any fatalities or injuries.
“In total there were 17 unmanned aerial vehicle launches, presumably from the east coast of the Sea of Azov,” the Ukrainian Air Force said in a note published on its Telegram channel.
Azov is an inland sea in the Black Sea and borders Ukraine to the west and north and Russia to the east.
Russia has occupied the entire Ukrainian coast of the Sea of Azov, the main port of which is the city of Mariupol.
Russia has been using Iranian-made Shahid-136 drones to attack Ukraine since October.
Thanks in part to anti-aircraft systems donated by Western partners, the Ukrainian military is able to shoot down most of these drones and protect its electrical infrastructure.
Millions of Ukrainians have suffered blackouts for months due to drone and missile attacks on the country’s power grid.
Source: DN
