DM Monitoring
MOSCOW: Russia’s defence ministry claimed on Sunday to have captured a tiny village in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, where it has been on the offensive making territorial gains.
Russian troops “have managed to liberate the village of Umanskoye in the popular republic of Donetsk”, the ministry said in reference to the Ukrainian village of Umanske.
Umanske is a tiny village that had fewer than 180 inhabitants before Russia launched its military offensive in Ukraine in February 2022. It lies about 25 kilometres (15 miles) to the northwest of Donetsk, which is the main city of the region and is under Russian control. Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov said on Friday Russia had made advances “in all tactical directions”.
Moscow’s forces had seized 880 square kilometres (340 square miles) of territory this year alone, he said. Ukraine’s outnumbered and outgunned forces have been under pressure for several months, particularly since Russia launched a new push in early May around the eastern city of Kharkiv, the second largest in Ukraine.
Russian soldiers have also been pushing hard in the east towards Pokrovsk, a city around 30 kilometres northwest of Umanske.
Kyiv hopes the imminent delivery of Western munitions it has long been waiting for will allow its troops to regain the upper hand on the battlefield. Likewise, US President Joe Biden’s decision to allow Kyiv to use American-supplied weapons to strike certain targets inside Russia has provided Ukraine with a significant boost.
Earlier, Russia fired a combined 100 missiles and drones at Ukraine overnight, in a barrage that targeted energy sites across the country, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday.
Russia has launched hundreds of aerial attacks at Ukraine’s power facilities throughout the two-year war, causing significant damage and energy shortages as Ukraine’s stretched air defences struggle to repel the waves of drones and missiles.
“The enemy launched 53 missiles of various types and 47 attack drones,” the air force said, adding that it shot down 35 of the missiles and all but one of the drones.
Two thermal power plants were damaged in the attack, the DTEK operator said, without specifying where they were located.
“It was another extremely difficult night for the Ukrainian energy sector. The enemy struck two of our thermal power plants. The equipment was seriously damaged,” the company said in a statement on Telegram.
It was the sixth major attack on DTEK thermal power plants since mid-March, it added.
Ukraine’s Energy Minister German Galushchenko said Russia had targeted sites in five regions — Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovograd, Ivano-Frankivsk and Zaporizhzhia — stretching from near the eastern frontlines to Ukraine’s west, which borders the EU.
The ministry warned that power restrictions were likely on Saturday evening as a result of the attacks.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow was trying to “exploit” a lack of “determination” among Ukraine’s key Western backers and repeated his call for more air defence systems.
“Russia’s main goal is to normalise terror, to exploit the lack of sufficient air defence and determination of Ukraine’s partners,” he said in a social media post.
“This is a test of humanity and determination for the free world. Either we pass this test together, or the world will plunge into even greater destabilisation and chaos,” he added.
