Russia-Ukraine War: The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in his daily address on Monday, stated that intense fighting has been going on in the eastern Donbas region near Bakhmut, a town that Russia’s Wagner forces have been pushing hard to seize.
The Ukrainian troops have been holding out attacks against Russian forces in two eastern towns while the forces on the southern front are setting up to battle for the strategic Kherson region, where Russian forces have been trying to reinforce.
“The circumstances on the front line haven’t changed significantly,” Zelenskyy said. “The fiercest battles are in the Donetsk region, towards Bakhmut and Avdiivka. This is where the craziness of the Russian command is most evident,” he added. “Day after day, for months, they have been pushing people to their deaths there, concentrating the highest level of artillery strikes.”
With Russians trying to strengthen their hold in the Kherson region, nearly 70,000 people have evacuated and displaced from their homes in Kherson within a week.
The Pro-Russian authorities have been looking to move in the residents in the Russian-controlled areas on the left bank of the river while the forces continue to remain in the regions as the Ukrainian forces could bid for the main urban area on the other bank of the river.
Kherson is one of the four provinces of Ukraine that have been partly under Russian annexure since the invasion of Ukraine in February. The area includes the only land route to the Crimean Peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014, the mouth of the Dnipro river.
As per the officials and military analysts, the Kherson battle would decide if Ukraine can loosen Russia’s control over southern Ukraine.
