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Ukraine conflict - day 382: Kyiv and Moscow both claim hundreds killed in fight for Bakhmut
CGTN
Europe;Ukraine
A soldier of the 1st Separate Siveria Tank Brigade in Ukraine. /Oleksandr Ratushniak /Reuters
A soldier of the 1st Separate Siveria Tank Brigade in Ukraine. /Oleksandr Ratushniak /Reuters

A soldier of the 1st Separate Siveria Tank Brigade in Ukraine. /Oleksandr Ratushniak /Reuters

TOP HEADLINES

· Ukraine and Russia both claimed hundreds of enemy troops were killed over the previous 24 hours in the fight for Bakhmut, with Kyiv fending off unabating attacks and a small river that bisects the town now marking the new frontline.

· The Ukrainian military was preparing for an upcoming counter-offensive, with a top commander saying his forces' ongoing defense of Bakhmut in the face of fierce and sustained Russian attacks was necessary to "buy time" for that push. READ MORE BELOW

· The chief of Russian mercenary group Wagner has said his forces are close to the center of the frontline hotspot of Bakhmut. "This is the building of the town administration, this is the center of the town," Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video posted on messaging app Telegram, pointing towards a building in the distance.

· Three civilians were killed in Russian shelling of Kherson in southern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, denouncing what he called "brutal terrorist attacks" by pro-Moscow units.

· Ukraine's foreign minister has urged Germany to speed up supplies of ammunition and to start training Ukrainian pilots on Western fighter jets. Dmytro Kuleba told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that ammunition shortages were the "number one" problem in Ukraine's attempt to repel Russia's offensive.

· Russia has bombarded Ukraine more than 40,500 times since the conflict began in February 2022, according to the Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko. Shelling has destroyed more than 152,000 residential buildings since then, Euromaidan reported Klymenko as saying.

· Iran has finalized a deal to buy Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets from Russia, state media reported, as defense cooperation between the two countries deepens. In a statement to the United Nations, Tehran said it began approaching "countries to buy fighter jets" to replenish its fleet in the wake of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

Ukrainian troops prepare to fire towards Russian positions with a 155mm M777 Howitzer artillery weapon near Bakhmut. /Aris Messinis/AFP
Ukrainian troops prepare to fire towards Russian positions with a 155mm M777 Howitzer artillery weapon near Bakhmut. /Aris Messinis/AFP

Ukrainian troops prepare to fire towards Russian positions with a 155mm M777 Howitzer artillery weapon near Bakhmut. /Aris Messinis/AFP

IN DETAIL

Ukraine preparing for counter-offensive in defense of Bakhmut

The Ukrainian military was preparing for an upcoming counter-offensive, with a top commander saying his forces' ongoing defense of Bakhmut in the face of fierce and sustained Russian attacks was necessary to "buy time" for that push.

The remarks came as British intelligence said the frontline had shifted in the fight for Bakhmut - the longest and bloodiest battle of the conflict - but that any further Russian advance in the devastated town would be "highly challenging."

Some military experts have questioned the sense of continuing to hold the city, but the commander of Ukraine's ground forces, Oleksandr Syrsky, said that it helped win time in preparation for the coming counter-offensive.

"The real heroes now are the defenders who are holding the eastern front on their shoulders, and inflicting the heaviest possible losses, sparing neither themselves nor the enemy," Syrsky was quoted as saying in a statement.

"It is necessary to buy time to build reserves and launch a counter-offensive, which is not far off."

The Ukrainian defense ministry reported that its forces had repelled "more than 100 enemy attacks" over the last day along the eastern front. 

 

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Source(s): AFP ,Reuters

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