Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that the situation on the Eastern Front is getting tougher as Russia sends more troops into battle to breach Ukraine’s defenses. Zelensky’s comments came on Saturday as nearly 500,000 households lost power after shelling continued in the eastern Donetsk region and an accident at a power plant in the southern region of Odesa.
Russian troops, who have been pushing for a significant battlefield victory after months of setbacks, have been trying to close their grip on the town of Bakhmut and are also trying to capture the nearby coal-mining city of Vuhledar, also in the eastern region of Donetsk. Earlier in the day, Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar wrote on Telegram that Russian efforts to break the defenses in Bakhmut and Lyman had failed.
Ukraine’s border guard service reported that its soldiers killed four and wounded seven+ opposing forces as they fought off the latest attack. The fighting around Bakhmut has been costly for Russia in terms of soldiers’ lives, the Kremlin admitted. In Odesa, officials reported that a fire caused by an accident at an overloaded substation had cut electricity across the southern region.
France, Italy, and the US have all pledged new arms sales to Ukraine, and Kyiv has expressed gratitude for the promised weapons but is already asking for more, including fighter jets. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Olaf Scholz said in an interview that there was an agreement that weapons supplied by the West would not be used to attack Russian territory.
