Ukrainian forces reported that they were trying to advance through several cities in Donetsk, a region in eastern Ukraine that has become the main focus of heavy Russian bombardment and the war that has been going on for nearly six months, but said they repelled most of the attacks.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces also reported that more than a dozen towns were bombed on the southern front, most notably the Kherson region, which was largely controlled by Russian forces, but where Ukrainian troops had seized territory.
Great attention has been paid to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine amid fears of disaster from renewed bombings in recent days when Russia and Ukraine have made mutual accusations.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called for the establishment of a demilitarized zone around the power plant, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Russian soldiers firing at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant or using it as a base for firing “special target for Ukrainian forces”
The Zaporizhzhia power plant controls the south bank of a large reservoir on the Dnipro River. The Ukrainian forces, which control the cities on the opposite bank, are under intense bombardment by Russia.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which wanted to oversee the plant, warned that unless the war stopped, there would be a nuclear disaster. Nuclear experts fear the war could damage the plant’s fuel tanks or reactors.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine has often proposed different formats to the Russian leadership for peace talks, but no progress has been made.
“So we have to defend ourselves, we have to respond to all forms of terrorism, to all instances of bombing – violent bombings that don’t stop for a single day,” he said in Sunday’s video comments.
east and south
Kyiv has said for weeks that it has been planning a counterattack to recapture Zaporizhzhia and neighboring Kherson province, most of the territory that Russia conquered and still holds after the February 24 invasion.
The Ukrainian military command said on Sunday that Russian troops continued to unsuccessfully attack Ukrainian positions near Avdiivka, which since 2014 has become one of the Ukrainian forces’ outposts near Donetsk.
Ukrainian military expert Oleg Zhdanov said the situation is particularly difficult in nearby towns such as Avdiivka and Pisky.
“We have insufficient artillery and our forces are seeking more support to defend Pisky,” he said in a video posted online. “But the city is basically under Ukrainian control.”
source: Noticias
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