Pavlohrad, Ukraine
Reuters
Russia unleashed a fresh volley of missiles on Ukraine overnight in a city in the east, killing two people, setting off huge blazes and damaging dozens of homes and other buildings.
Firefighters work at the site of a residential area hit by a Russian military strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the town of Pavlohrad, Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, on 1st May, 2023. PICTURE: Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military-Civil Administration Serhii Lysak via Telegram/Handout via Reuters
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced the two deaths in his nightly video address, vowing: “The Russian occupiers will receive our answer for every such strike.
“The terrorists’ missiles took the lives of two people, very young men,” Zelenskiy said. “Forty other people – women, children, men, were treated for wounds and injuries.”
US BELIEVES RUSSIANS IN UKRAINE HAVE SUFFERED 100,000 CASUALTIES IN 5 MONTHS
The White House on Monday estimated that Russia’s military has suffered 100,000 casualties in the last five months in fighting against Ukraine in the Bakhmut region.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters the figure, based on US intelligence estimates, included more than 20,000 dead, half of them from the Wagner mercenary group, which includes convicts released from prison to join the fighting.
“Russia’s attempt at an offensive in the Donbas largely through Bakhmut has failed,” Kirby said. “Russia has been unable to seize any real strategic and significant territory.”
He said the Russians have made some incremental gains in Bakhmut but that this has come at a “terrible, terrible cost” and that Ukraine’s defenses in the region remain strong.
“Russia has exhausted its military stockpiles and its armed forces and since December alone, we estimate that Russia has suffered more than 100,000 casualties, including over 20,000 killed in action, nearly half of whom were Wagner soldiers,” he said.
“It’s really stunning, these numbers,” Kirby added, saying the total is three times the number of American casualties in the Guadalcanal campaign in World War II.
Kirby said another US weapons package for Ukraine would be announced soon.
– STEVE HOLLAND and KATHARINE JACKSON, Washington DC, US/Reuters
Zelenskiy also said a 14-year-boy was killed near his school when it was hit by a bomb in the Chernihiv region, close to the Russian border.
The attack on Pavlohrad, a city and railway hub, came during the second wave of nationwide missile strikes in three days, with Moscow apparently reviving its winter tactic of long-range strikes ahead of a planned Ukrainian counter-offensive.
A huge crater had been blasted in the backyard of a house that was strewn with debris on the outskirts of Pavlohrad in south-eastern Ukraine, around 100 kilometres from the front line. Homes nearby were badly damaged. In the city centre, the windows of a dormitory that serves a chemical plant had been blown out.
“I ran outside and saw the garage was destroyed. Everything was on fire, glass shards were everywhere. Had we been outside, we would have been killed,” said resident Olha Lytvynenko, 61.
Viktoriia Suprun, 41, said she had taken cover with her daughter in the hallway of the dormitory.
“We rushed to the hallway, laid on the floor. And then the explosion wave twisted the door. Had we stayed for five more seconds, we would have been trapped here,” she said.
Mykola Lukashuk, head of the Dnipropetrovsk region council, said the attack had damaged 19 apartment blocks, 25 houses, three schools, three kindergartens and several shops. The wounded included five children, the region’s governor said.
Russia says it targets military
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had struck using high-precision long-range air and sea-based missiles against “Ukraine’s military-industrial facilities”.
“The objectives of the strike were achieved,” it said in a statement. “The work of enterprises making ammunition, weapons and military equipment for Ukrainian troops has been disrupted.”
Russian news reports said two civilians were killed by Ukrainian shelling in a Russian-held area of the south-central Zaporizhzhia region. Ukrainian forces, the reports said, also shelled Russian-held areas of the Donetsk region in the east.
Reuters was unable to verify reports of military activity.
With Ukraine readying a counter-offensive to take back territory seized since the invasion was launched 14 months ago, the commander-in-chief of Ukrainian forces, General Valery Zaluzhniy, spoke on Monday to the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“I emphasised the need to augment air defence system capabilities,” Zaluzhniy said in a statement of his conversation with General Mark Milley.
“Separately, I touched upon manning our units and the importance of timely supply of weapons, military equipment and ammunition to Ukraine in sufficient quantities.”
On the ground, the war is at a potential turning point after five months of Russian assaults that have secured little new territory despite bloody ground combat.
A view shows the site of a residential area hit by a Russian military strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the town of Pavlohrad, Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, on 1st May, 2023. PICTURE: Reuters/Sofiia Gatilova
Kyiv is preparing to unleash a counterattack using hundreds of armoured vehicles and tanks donated by allies, and thousands of troops recently returned from training in the West.
The Ukrainian General Staff said fighting continued to grip the city of Bakhmut, focal point of Russian attacks in the east.
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A top Ukrainian general said counter-attacks by Kyiv’s forces had ousted Russian forces from some positions in the city, but that the situation remained difficult.
Damage appeared to be limited elsewhere in Ukraine, after air raid sirens sounded for hours through the night. Ukraine said it shot down 15 of 18 incoming cruise missiles.
On Friday, 23 civilians were killed when a high-rise apartment building in the city of Uman was hit by a missile, part of Russia’s first big countrywide volley of air strikes in nearly two months.
Russia had launched waves of missile attacks on Ukraine from October until early March, often targeting energy infrastructure in what Kyiv called a deliberate strategy to harm and intimidate civilians, a war crime.
– Additional reporting by LIDIA KELLY and DAN PELESCHUK
