According to a senior NATO military official, however, Russian forces “do not have the necessary forces to achieve a strategic breakthrough”.
“They have neither the skills nor the capacity to do it,” said the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, American General Christopher Cavoli, on Thursday evening.
Ukraine has said it is containing the Russian military advance in the northeast of the country where the situation remains “extremely difficult” according to President Volodymyr Zelensky, with Moscow leading an offensive there which has enabled it to reap its most significant territorial gains since end of 2022.
A mother and her four-year-old child were killed in a drone attack on the village of Oktyabrsky, in the Russian border region of Belgorod, the governor announced.
A car in which four people were traveling was targeted by a drone, the mother died on the spot and her 4-year-old child died of his injuries in hospital, declared the governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, specifying that another drone had targeted a gas station near the village of Bessonovka.
Four women were killed Thursday by Ukrainian strikes on Donetsk, a city occupied by the Russians, authorities set up by Moscow announced. The attack also left two injured, a child born in 2018 and a man born in 1987, while another strike on a neighboring town injured a septuagenarian, according to this source.
Donetsk has been occupied since 2014 by Russian or pro-Russian forces and is located less than ten km from the eastern front line where intense fighting is taking place.
In any case, that’s what kyiv said this Thursday. These accusations were first made by Interior Minister Igor Klymenko, who indicated that Russia was carrying out arbitrary detentions of civilians in Vovchansk.
According to its leader, Serguiï Bolvinov, the Russian army is detaining 35 to 40 civilians in the town of Vovchansk, and using them as “human shields” to protect a military headquarters. “And we know that the Russians cynically shot an elderly man who was trying to flee into territory controlled by Ukraine,” he added, assuring that the man was shot in the head. Russia has so far not reacted to these accusations.
Every day, “20 Minutes” provides you with a live update on the latest news from the war in Ukraine. War was declared with Russia’s invasion of the country on the night of February 23 to 24, 2022 by decision of Russian President Vladimir Putin. This Friday is already the 814th day of the conflict.