Ukraine’s military command announced the latest developments on Thursday morning, the Ukrainska Pravda website reported.
The Ukrainian General Staff said in an update on Facebook: "We have had partial success on the Rivnopil – Staromaiorske front" in the eastern Donetsk region "and are gaining a foothold on the lines reached, inflicting artillery fire damage on identified Russian targets, and carrying out counter-battery fire measures."
It added that Russia was using reserves and trying "to regain its lost positions," but "suffering heavy losses” in the process.
Ukraine’s military command said that "Ukrainian Defence Forces conducted offensive operations on the Bilohorivka – Dibrova front" in the eastern Luhansk region, where they achieved "partial success" and were "gaining a foothold on the positions reached," according to Ukrainska Pravda.
Ukrainian forces were also continuing to conduct a counteroffensive operation on the Melitopol and Berdyansk fronts in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia province and "on the Lyman front" in the eastern Luhansk region, the General Staff said.
Russia accuses Ukraine of striking key bridge between Kherson and Crimea
Ukrainian forces have carried out an overnight missile strike on a bridge connecting Ukraine’s southern Kherson region and the Russian-occupied Crimea peninsula, Russia-appointed officials in both regions have said, according to the Reuters news agency.
The so-called "gate to Crimea," the Chonhar bridge is one of a handful of links between Crimea--which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014--and mainland Ukraine, Reuters reported.
Vladimir Saldo, the Moscow-appointed Kherson governor, said the bridge was likely to have been attacked by the Storm Shadow missiles, causing damage to the road, but traffic has been diverted to a different route, and no casualties have been reported, according to news outlets.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine, Reuters noted.
Russia strikes Ukraine’s Odesa, Kryvyi Rih with drones, missiles
Russia attacked Ukraine’s southern Black Sea port of Odesa and the central city of Krivyi Rih with unmanned aerial vehicles and missiles overnight, The New Voice of Ukraine website reported on Thursday morning.
Ukraine’s air defence shot down three drones over Odesa, while another UAV managed to strike a storage facility, causing a fire, but there were no injuries, according to officials.
Meanwhile, Kryvyi Rih was hit with a wave of missiles that damaged dozens of houses, a utility building, garages, cars, gas and water pipes, and the electrical grid, The New Voice of Ukraine reported.
There were no reports of casualties, according to officials.
Explosions were also heard in the northeastern city of Kharkiv and Kremenchuk in central Ukraine, but no further information was provided by the authorities, according to The New Voice of Ukraine.
Russia attacks Ukraine with missiles, drones
In all, Russia attacked Ukraine with three Kh-22 air-to-surface missiles from Tu-22M3 strategic bombers from the Sea of Azov, three Kh-47 Kinzhal hypersonic ballistic missiles from MiG-31K jet interceptors, and four Iranian-made Shahed-136/131 drones in the early hours of Thursday, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
Ukraine’s air defence destroyed three of four Shahed UAVs, while the missiles did not reach their targets, the country’s air force said.
It added, as quoted by Ukrainska Pravda: "Fortunately, the enemy missiles did not reach their targets in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. However, the invaders continue to wage terror against the Ukrainian people by attacking Ukraine's critical infrastructure."
Two killed in explosion at Kyiv residential district
Two people have died after an overnight explosion and subsequent fire at a 16-storey building in the Dnipro district of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said on Thursday.
He added that two other people were in hospital and another two were being treated at the scene, Britain’s The Guardian newspaper reported.
Officials said the explosion had probably been caused by a gas leak, but the exact cause was still being determined, The Kyiv Independent website reported.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, launching the largest military campaign in Europe since World War II.
Thursday is day 484 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, Ukrainska Pravda, Reuters, The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Kyiv Independent
