Kyiv said on Thursday that Russia has stepped up its attacks on eastern and southern Ukraine, and that Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened a swift retaliation against all Western countries engaged on behalf of Ukraine. According to AFP journalists, the attacks took place amid the visit of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and for the first time since mid-April.
More than two months after an invasion that destroyed cities but failed to capture the capital, Kiev, Russia made an effort to seize the two eastern provinces in a war that the West saw as a decisive turning point in the war.
The Ukrainian military command said about the situation on the eastern front, “The enemy is increasing the speed of the offensive operation. The Russian invaders are firing heavily in almost all directions.”
The command said Russia’s main offensive was near the towns of Slobozhanske and Donets, along a strategic front highway connecting Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, with the Russian-occupied city of Izyum. The governor of the Kharkov region said that Russian forces increased their offensive from Izyum, but Ukrainian troops kept the ground.
Although Russian forces were driven out of northern Ukraine last month, they are heavily entrenched east and still hold part of the south, which they took in March.
Ukraine said powerful explosions occurred overnight in the southern city of Kherson, the only regional capital Russia has captured since the invasion. Ukraine said Russian troops used tear gas and stun grenades to quell pro-Ukrainian demonstrations on Wednesday and are now bombing the entire surrounding area and attacking President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s hometown of Mykolaiv and Kryvyi Rih.
Kyiv accuses Moscow of plotting a fake independence referendum in the occupied south. According to Russian state media, a self-styled pro-Russian “military-civilian commission” official in Kherson said on Thursday that the region will begin using Russia’s currency, the ruble, from May 1.
Western countries have increased their arms shipments to Ukraine in recent days as the conflict in the east intensifies. More than 40 nations have gathered at a US airbase in Germany this week, promising to send heavy weapons like artillery for what is expected to be a massive battle of enemy armies along a fortified front line.
Washington now says it hopes Ukrainian forces not only repel Russia’s offensive in the east, but do not threaten their neighbors by weakening their armed forces. Russia says this amounts to a “proxy war” against NATO itself.
“If someone plans to intervene from the outside in the ongoing events and create strategic threats to Russia that are unacceptable to us, they should know that our retaliatory attacks will be lightning fast,” Putin told lawmakers in St Petersburg.
“We have all the tools for that, things no one can brag about right now. And we won’t brag, we’ll use it if necessary. And I want everyone to know that.”
*With information from AFP
source: Noticias
