According to British military intelligence, the war in Ukraine is about to enter a new phase. Most of the fighting was therefore shifted to a front almost 350 kilometers long, which stretched in the south-west parallel to the Dnieper from the area around Zaporizhia to Cherson. This was announced by the Ministry of Defense in London on Saturday on Twitter from the latest intelligence report.
According to the findings, Russian forces were almost certainly gathering in southern Ukraine. There they expected a Ukrainian counter-offensive or were preparing a possible attack of their own.
Long Russian convoys of military trucks, tanks and artillery are still moving southwest from Donbass in eastern Ukraine, the intelligence report said. Tactical battalions numbering 800 to 1,000 soldiers have been stationed on the Crimean peninsula and are likely to support Russian troops in Kherson. The region lies across from Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, on mainland Ukraine.
According to British information, the Ukrainian armed forces are concentrating their attacks on bridges, ammunition depots and railway connections in the south. Among them is the strategically important railway connection that connects Cherson with Crimea. The Ukrainian attacks are coming at ever shorter intervals.
According to information from Kyiv, the Russian troops are attacking Bakhmut with all severity, a cornerstone of the defense system around the last Ukrainian-held conurbation in the Donbass. "The enemy is launching an attack on Bakhmut, fighting continues," the Ukrainian General Staff said in its situation report on Saturday. The day before, the pro-Russian rebels had reported that fighting was already taking place within the city limits. The information provided by both sides cannot be checked independently.
Since the capture of the Luhansk Oblast, Russian offensive efforts in eastern Ukraine have focused on the neighboring Donetsk Oblast. Gradually, the Russian invaders have been able to push back the Ukrainian defenders in recent weeks. They now control about 60 percent of the territory. The headquarters of the Ukrainian troops in the Donbass is located in the Sloviansk-Kramatorsk conurbation, where a good half a million people lived before the war. From the east, this area is secured by the Siwersk – Soledar – Bakhmut line of fortifications.
This is now faltering in several places. Russian troops are also in front of Siwersk and Soledar. However, the heaviest fighting is currently taking place around the Bakhmut traffic junction, which the Russians are shelling with artillery and tanks.
The fighting is also continuing in front of the former regional capital of Donetsk, which has been in the hands of pro-Russian separatists since 2014. The troops loyal to Moscow are trying to push the Ukrainians further away. In the area of the small town of Avdiivka, north of Donetsk, there had been several attempted attacks that had been repelled, the General Staff reported. The area is bombarded with artillery over a large area.
In the south of the country, however, the initiative is passed to the Ukrainians. There, the Russian troops concentrated on defending their positions in the occupied territories, according to the situation report. The Southern Command of the Ukrainian military previously reported that it had destroyed at least six Russian arms and ammunition depots and two command posts in the Kherson region. There is no independent confirmation for this information either.
Russia and Ukraine blame each other for the shelling of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant site. The largest nuclear power plant in Europe is located in the part of southern Ukraine occupied by Russian troops - there have been several dicey situations there in the past months of the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj spoke of an "act of terrorism" by the Russian side and called for new sanctions aimed at the neighboring country's nuclear industry. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kyiv warned that if a reactor were hit while it was in operation, the possible consequences would be “equivalent to using an atomic bomb”.
"Anyone who creates nuclear threats for other peoples is definitely not in a position to use nuclear technology safely," Zelenskyj said on Saturday night. Specifically, he demanded punitive measures against the Russian state-owned company Rosatom.
Just a few days ago, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) expressed concern about the situation around the power plant, which, with six blocks and an output of 6,000 megawatts, is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. An inspection to check technical safety is urgently needed, said IAEA boss Rafael Grossi. But it is currently very difficult for the IAEA to even get into the war zone in Zaporizhia.
In parts of the city of Enerhodar, where the power plant is located, the power and water supply failed, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced - and blamed the Ukrainian army for it. In addition, a block of the nuclear power plant had to be partially shut down. The information could not be independently verified. The Ukrainian side, on the other hand, said the Russians had shelled the area themselves.
