While Moscow and the Wagner army it backs declared Bakhmut complete earlier this month, Kiev has refused to give it up.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of destroying the city at last weekend’s G7 summit, but insisted his troops would continue to fight for it.
In a message on Telegram on Saturday, Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said there were no “active battles” in the city or its flanks.
“The enemy is looking for its own capabilities. “
It precedes a long-discussed Ukrainian counteroffensive, for which Russian forces are preparing.
Ukrainian officials have reported that this may begin in a few days.
Russia is a “large-scale provocation” opposing Europe’s largest nuclear power plant to stop Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive in the spring, Kiev’s Defense Ministry said.
Troops occupying the southeast of the country will attack the Zaporizhzhia plan and report a radioactive leak to start an investigation, according to a statement.
He said such an investigation would halt hostilities and give the Russians the breathing space they want to regroup.
The Ministry of Defence has not provided evidence of these allegations.
The U. N. ‘s International Atomic Energy Agency, which would conduct any investigation into the plant, had no comment, though there was no reaction from Moscow either.
The White House said it was following the scenario closely and had noticed no signs of leaking radioactive curtains.
Ukraine’s claim mirrors events through Russia during the war, with the Kremlin claiming without evidence that Kiev is preparing provocative attacks with weapons or harmful ingredients and then making accusations of war crimes.
This comes as the Ukrainian prepares to launch a counteroffensive that has been talked about for weeks.
Authorities have reported that it may begin in a few days.
A 73-year-old man was killed and two others wounded after Russian troops shelled 16 spaces in Zaporizhzhia, a local Ukrainian governor said.
Yurii Malashko reported that Russia introduced 108 strikes on the southeastern city in one day with artillery, multiple rocket launch systems and drones.
Zaporizhzhia has suffered several attacks since the war began, with Russian forces occupying the region lately, adding Enerhodar, home to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
“The enemy will be responsible for each and every war crime, each and every shattered destiny and each and every life that has been cut short. Ukrainians are strong and unwavering, victory is ours,” M. Malashko in a Telegram article.
Some 400 Ukrainian infantrymen have reportedly started on US M1 Abrams tanks. USA in Germany.
The first organization of Ukrainian infantrymen began education aimed at “how to use and maintain” the vehicles, which are known to be the most complex war tank in the world, the New York Times reported.
Half of the organization began education in Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels in southern Germany, learning medical skills and how to shoot firearms.
The other party learned how to refuel and tanks.
About 31 tanks would be sent to Germany for use in the program, which is expected to last 10 to 12 weeks, the outlet said.
The deployment of Abrams tanks on the battlefield gives Ukraine a major credit over Russia.
There have been many hypotheses about when Ukraine will launch its long-awaited counteroffensive.
Volodymyr Zelensky has been seeking every imaginable help from Western countries to prepare for the assault, and Kiev has taken the time to exercise troops.
Earlier in the day, one of the country’s most sensible security officials told BBC News that Ukraine is in a position to start the operation.
Although he did not reveal a start date, Oleksiy Danilov hinted that it could be imminent and said it could start “the next day or in a week. “
In another sign that national forces were in a position to launch their counteroffensive, Ukraine’s most sensible army commander shared a video of Ukrainian troops preparing for combat.
“It’s time to take back what belongs to us,” Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi wrote alongside the video.
The live and video were shared on various social media platforms and gave the impression that they intended to rally aid from the nation.
General Zaluzhnyi gave no indication of where and when Ukrainian forces seek to break through Russian lines.
Here’s the clip. . . .
Russia is invading Belarus “stealthily” by deploying nuclear weapons, our military analyst Sean Bell said.
Earlier this week, Russia said it was moving ahead with the first deployment of such weapons outside its borders since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said the weapons were already in his country.
“At first glance, it’s more about shaking up the rhetoric around nuclear and sowing concern in the West, because the truth is you don’t want to deploy nuclear weapons, they can do it in half the world,” Bell explained.
“The real story is that President Putin has made no secret of his preference for trying to strengthen Russian influence and repair the Soviet Union.
“It is sending more and more troops to Belarus to carry out operations from that soil, also firing nuclear weapons there, all designed to increase Russian influence there. “
You can see Bell’s full view of Putin below. . .
One user was killed in a Russian bombing of parts of Kherson controlled by Ukraine, the head of the region’s army administration said.
Oleksandr Prokudin claimed that Russia had launched “45 strikes, firing 193 shells from mortars, artillery, Grad, tanks, drones and aircraft” in the region in the past day.
“The enemy shelled the city of Kherson twice (five shells),” he wrote in a Telegram post.
Residential areas, a grain elevator in Beryslav district, were attacked, he added.
The Russian air force intercepted two British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles, the country’s ministry said.
The UK gave Ukraine Storm Shadows earlier this month after Volodymyr Zelenksyy asked the West to supply long-range missiles.
Other countries were unwilling to hand them over in case Russia’s moves intensified.
Here’s something else about missiles from our Army analyst Sean Bell. . .
An employee of the structure was killed near the Russian village of Plekhovo after a Ukrainian shelling, a local governor said.
Not far from Plekhovo, which is a few kilometers from the Ukrainian border, work is underway to strengthen defensive lines, Roman Starovoit added in a Telegram message.
This comes after Russia claimed that Ukraine had targeted pipeline facilities deep within the country with a series of drone strikes the previous day.
Ukrainian drone strikes inside Russia have intensified in recent weeks, but Ukraine has publicly stated that it has launched them.
In the Tver region, northwest of Moscow, two drones attacked a station serving the Druzhba (Friendship) pipeline, one of the world’s largest oil pipelines, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported.
Tver’s local council said a drone crashed near the village of Erokhino, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
In Russia’s western Pskov region, two drones set off an explosion that destroyed the administrative construction of an oil pipeline, local governor Mikhail Vedernikov said.
Russia plans to expel diplomats, teachers and workers from German cultural establishments next month, likely to further galvanize tensions between the already tense two countries.
Germany’s Foreign Ministry criticized Russia’s decision, calling the upcoming expulsions “unilateral, unjustified and incomprehensible. “
Several hundred German state employees, as well as teachers and the Goethe Institute, which promotes German culture and language abroad, could be expelled, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported.
The move comes as a reaction to the reduction of Russian intelligence in Germany earlier this year.
“The Russian Foreign Ministry made public in April its resolution to limit the number of workers in our missions and in German intermediary organizations in Russia,” a German Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
The expulsions will be “a primary relief in all areas of our presence in Russia,” the spokesman added.
Germany has not announced any concrete reaction to the expulsions from Russia, which are expected to begin next week.