Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksi Reznikov assured this Monday that “everything is ready” for the announced counter-offensive in Kiev and that it depends only on the General Staff when it will be launched. The statements come after the Russians attacked the town of Pavlohrad, in southeastern Ukraine, at night and damaged several homes, with Moscow also claiming to have destroyed a weapons depot, damaging this counterattack. Videos posted to social media appear to show several secondary blasts at one of the affected locations.
“I believe that from today we can go into the last stretch and say, ‘Yes, everything is ready,'” Reznikov assured in statements on state television. “The General Staff, the Commander-in-Chief and his team will decide how and when, depending on the decision and assessment of the situation on the battlefield”, he added. Reznikov was convinced of the success of this operation and reiterated his confidence in the military high commands organizing the operation. “A lot has been done to make them successful,” he said.
Ukrainian forces say they intercepted 15 of 18 rockets fired overnight by the Russians at Pavlohrad in the Dnipropetrovsk region. According to regional official Sergiy Lysak, the attack damaged 19 apartment buildings, 25 houses, three schools, three kindergartens and several shops. An industrial zone will also have been reached. At least 34 people were injured, including five children, and deaths were reported but the number was not known.
A freight train derailed within the borders of the Russian Federation after an “explosive” destroyed the tracks. there were no casualties. Another “sabotage” to be added to several others that have taken place both in Russia and in its ally Belarus – this Monday’s train originated from this country and was destined for Briansk.
“An unidentified explosive device exploded, derailing a freight train. No casualties,” the governor of the Briansk region (which borders Ukraine), Alexander Bogomaz, said via Telegram. In addition to the locomotive, which caught fire, seven wagons derailed.
At least 66 people across Russia have been arrested since the fall for sabotaging railways, according to independent Russian news website MediaZona. Railways are an essential mode of transport for the Russian military and it is not clear what was being carried on the derailed train. But acts of sabotage don’t stop there. On Monday, Leningrad governor Alexander Drozdenko said local power lines had been blown by an “explosive”.
However, according to American accounts, more than 20,000 Russian fighters (half of them members of the Wagner Group mercenaries) died and 80,000 were wounded in the last five months of fighting for the capture of Bakhmut. The numbers were put forward by White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, who said he would not release data on the Ukrainian “casualties”.
with authorities
Source: DN
