eastern Ukraine - The African Mirror

May

2023

Russia says two of its commanders killed as Kyiv wages Bakhmut offensive

RUSSIA'S Defence Ministry said that two of its military commanders were killed in eastern Ukraine, as Kyiv's forces renewed efforts to break through Russian defences in the embattled city of Bakhmut. In a daily briefing, the ministry said that Commander Vyacheslav Makarov of the 4th Motorized Rifle Brigade and Deputy Commander Yevgeny Brovko from a separate unit were killed trying to repel Ukrainian attacks. It said that Makarov had been leading troops from the front line and that Brovko "died heroically, suffering multiple shrapnel wounds". The defence ministry rarely announces the deaths of military command in its daily briefings. It…

Jan

2023

By The African Mirror

‘Land covered in corpses’ as Russia strives for first big Ukraine gains in months

WORLD

TOM BALMFORTH and VLADYSLAV SMILIANETS BRITAIN said Russia had probably captured most of a salt mining town in eastern Ukraine where Kyiv accused Moscow of sacrificing wave upon wave of soldiers and mercenaries in a horrific and senseless battle over the wasteland. The British Defence Ministry said Russian troops and fighters of Wagner, a mercenary company run by an ally of President Vladimir Putin, "are likely in control of most of the settlement" of Soledar after four days of advances. If confirmed, it would be Russia's most substantial gain since last August, after a series of humiliating retreats throughout much…

Dec

2022

By The African Mirror

Russia intensifies attacks on liberated Kherson, eastern Ukraine

WORLD

DAN PELESCHUK and HERBERT VILLARRAGA RUSSIAN forces stepped up mortar and artillery attacks on the recently liberated city of Kherson in southern Ukraine on Wednesday, Ukraine's military said, while also exerting constant pressure along front lines in eastern regions of the country. Russia fired 33 missiles from multiple rocket launchers at civilian targets in Kherson in the 24 hours to early Wednesday, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said in its morning report. Russia denies targeting civilians. Heavy fighting also persisted around the Ukrainian-held city of Bakhmut, now largely in ruins, in the eastern province of Donetsk, and to…

Dec

2022

By The African Mirror

Russia shells eastern front as Putin says West ‘exploiting’ crisis

WORLD

DAN PELESCHUK RUSSIAN forces shelled the entire front line in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, officials in Kyiv said, as Russia's President Vladimir Putin accused the West of using Ukrainians as "cannon fodder" in its quest for global dominance. Putin also said, without elaborating, that Russia would probably have to do a deal over Ukraine someday while accusing France and Germany of betrayal over past efforts to bring peace to eastern Ukraine. In a sign of Russia's clampdown on public dissent since it invaded Ukraine on February 24, a Moscow court sentenced opposition politician Ilya Yashin to eight and a half…

Dec

2022

By The African Mirror

Russia attacks in east Ukraine but Kremlin appears to limit war ambition

WORLD

RUSSIAN forces attacked settlements in eastern Ukraine from the ground and air, officials said, in support of the Kremlin's apparently scaled-back ambition of only securing the bulk of Ukrainian lands it has claimed in the war. Fighting was underway along the entire line of demarcation in the Donetsk region, with the frontline town of Avdiivka shelled by Russian tanks on Thursday morning, said Tatiana Ignatchenko, a spokeswoman for the regional administration. Near the city of Lysychansk, Russia deployed more troops to try to capture the village of Bilohorivka, Ukraine's governor of the Luhansk region said, while a commander in another fought-over settlement…