Russia launched missile strikes across Ukraine on Thursday, according to Ukrainian authorities, after Western allies pledged to increase military aid to the Ukrainian armed forces to support a counteroffensive. Ukrainian authorities said southern air defenses shot down eight Kalibr missiles fired from a ship in the Black Sea, but other missiles hit northern and western Ukraine, as well as the central regions of Dnipropetrovsk and Kirovograd. A missile hit an industrial estate in the western city of Lviv, causing a fire that was brought under control, according to authorities.
Bolstered by tens of thousands of reservists drafted in December, Russia has intensified ground attacks in southern and eastern Ukraine in recent weeks, with a new major offensive expected as the first anniversary of its invasion approaches. of February 24.
"The enemy's offensive continues in the east, with round-the-clock attacks," Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on Wednesday.
"The situation is tense. But our fighters are not allowing the enemy to achieve their objectives and are inflicting very heavy losses," he wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Russia's Defense Ministry said earlier on Wednesday that Ukrainian forces had withdrawn in the face of Russian operations in the Luhansk region, though it gave no details and Reuters was unable to verify this and other battlefield reports. "During the offensive...Ukrainian troops randomly withdrew at a distance of up to 3 kilometers from the previously occupied lines," the ministry said on Telegram. The ministry did not specify where in Luhansk the offensive took place. The Luhansk and Donetsk regions make up Donbass, Ukraine's industrial heartland, now partly occupied by Russia, which wants full control.
In Kyiv, the capital's military administration said six Russian balloons that might have contained reconnaissance equipment were shot down after air raid sirens sounded.
Russia did not immediately comment. Russia's main effort has been a ground and artillery attack on the city of Bakhmut in Donetsk. Ukrainian military analysts said Russian troops had launched several unsuccessful attacks on towns north and south of Bakhmut over the previous day. "Things are very difficult for our forces there, as Russian troops are being sent to the area en masse," analyst Oleh Zhdanov said. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, in its afternoon report, said that Russian forces had fired on more than 15 towns and villages near Bakhmut, including the city itself.
Donetsk Regional Governor Pavlo Kirilenko posted photos and videos of a rubble-strewn apartment building he said had been destroyed in the southwestern Bakhmut city of Pokrovsk, killing three people.
Bakhmut's capture would give Russia a springboard to advance on two larger cities, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, further west of Donetsk, rekindling Moscow's momentum ahead of the invasion anniversary on February 24.
NATO countries are ramping up production of artillery munitions as Ukraine is consuming shells faster than allies can make them, the alliance said.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters after a two-day meeting of Alliance defense ministers in Brussels: "Things are being done, but... we have to step it up even more, because there is a great need to supply ammunition to Ukraine".
Ukraine has received billions of dollars in military aid, and the United States has committed more than $27.4 billion in security assistance since the conflict began. The European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, urged countries to join Germany in sending tanks. Britain said it, along with other European countries, would provide military hardware, including tank spare parts and artillery ammunition, through an international fund, with an initial package of more than $241 million.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Ukraine had a good chance of seizing and "exploiting" the initiative on the battlefield this year. Senior US officials had previously advised Ukraine to refrain from carrying out a major offensive until the last supply of US weapons is ready and training has been carried out. In a late-night speech, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: "We have to make sure that Ukraine is really perceived this spring as moving towards victory." Russia describes the invasion as a "special military operation" carried out in reaction to security threats and has treated the heavy weapons deliveries to Ukraine as evidence that the West is escalating the war.
Kyiv and its allies characterize Russia's actions as land grabs. Next week, on the eve of February 24, the anniversary of the start of the war, the UN General Assembly will vote on a draft resolution that insists on the need to achieve lasting peace and demands that Moscow withdraw its troops.
