More attacks reported: Ukraine wants to end the war by the end of autumn

Ukraine hopes to end the active part of the war by the end of autumn. This is important with a view to the heating season. After the explosions in Crimea, new satellite images show destruction at a military base.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on residents of Russian-occupied territories to resist. They should send information about the enemy or collaborators to the Ukrainian armed forces through secure channels, Zelenskyy said in his evening video address.

At the same time, the President renewed the request for foreign arms aid for his country. The more decisive it is, the sooner the war will end, he said, referring to a conference in Copenhagen. There, the defense ministers from a dozen countries, including Germany, discuss military and financial support for Ukraine.

Reflections in Kyiv

Meanwhile, people in Kyiv are considering how long the war will probably last. The fighting urgently needs to be ended before the heating season, said the head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak. Otherwise there is a risk that Russia will destroy the heat and energy infrastructure. “This is one of the reasons why we want to take maximum measures to end the active part of the war by the end of autumn,” said Yermak.

Zelenskyi said the duration of the war depended on Russian losses. “The higher the casualties of the occupiers, the faster we can liberate our country,” said Zelenskyj. This in turn depends on military aid to Ukraine.

Explosions in Russian-occupied city of Melitopol

According to Ukrainian reports, two explosions occurred in the occupied southern city of Melitopol on Wednesday evening. The access roads to the local police headquarters were blocked. Russian sources interpreted the loud explosions as anti-aircraft fire. There were no independent reports on this.

Zelenskyj expressed the expectation that the Russian occupiers would soon flee. “They already feel that the time has come to flee from Kherson and in general from the south of our country. There will come a time when they will flee from the Kharkiv region, from Donbass and from Crimea. ”

Dead in shelling on Bachmut

In the Donbass in eastern Ukraine, Russian troops continued their advances accompanied by massive artillery fire. Seven civilians were killed in the city of Bakhmut on Wednesday, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement. Six others were injured. Shops, houses and apartments were also damaged and fires were caused by the attack.

Bakhmut is located in the Donetsk region and thus in the Donbass industrial area, which the Russian army is striving to conquer completely. For the Assault Forces, Bakhmut is considered a key target in their advance toward regional centers.

Emergency services from the city of Donetsk, which has been controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014, also reported that a brewery had been hit by Ukrainian shelling. One person was killed and two others were injured. The emergency services warned that the attack on Wednesday evening released toxic ammonia.

Satellite images: Russian fighter jets destroyed in Crimea

After the explosions at a military base in Crimea, Western satellite images show at least seven Russian warplanes were destroyed. Other jets apparently suffered damage, reported Planet Labs PBC, a US company specializing in earth observation. Its satellite images came from Wednesday afternoon.

They show an approximately two square kilometer burnt green area on the Saky base. A number of craters were seen on the ground near the runway, usually indicative of a massive explosion. Some of the fighter jets on the parking lot were also moved on the runway: they were in a different place on satellite images taken before the explosions.

Russia has denied that any planes were destroyed in Tuesday’s detonations. The Ukrainian government has not blamed the explosions, but has mocked the Russian statement that an unwary smoker could have caused munitions at the Saky air base to catch fire and explode.