Russia continues to pressure Ukraine, both on the battle front and with bombings from the air. Moscow announced yesterday that its forces had attacked military infrastructure in response to Ukrainian attacks on its refineries. Kyiv denounced another “massive” strike against the power grid in which, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Russians used more than 50 missiles and more than 20 drones.
On the ground, Russian troops are advancing to control land communications in the regions of Kharkiv (north-eastern Ukraine) and Donetsk (eastern). The Russian Ministry of Defense reported in its latest statement the capture of two towns, one in each territorial demarcation.
According to the ministry, the West group, which operates in the Kharkiv region, “has improved the situation in its vanguard” by taking the town of Kisselivka. This small town (with 965 inhabitants before the conflict) is located 27 kilometers south-east of Kúpiansk, a city (26,000 inhabitants) towards which Russian forces have been trying to advance for months. The railway line connecting Kúpiansk with the cities of Svátove and Popasna, in the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Luhansk, annexed by Moscow in September 2022 and almost entirely under Russian military control, passes through Kisselivka.
At the same time, in the Donetsk region, Russian troops took the village of Novokalinove (520 inhabitants before the war), a village to the west of Oksheretine (4,500) that the Russian Ministry of Defense took for granted on 5 may Located to the north-west of the regional capital Donetsk and separated by 25 kilometres, the train station of Otsheretine stands in the way of the railway lines that connect Donetsk with Pokrovsk, an important city before the conflict (60,000 inhabitants), the occupation of which can help the Russians control this entire region.
Yesterday morning, missiles and drones hit almost a dozen energy installations in six Ukrainian regions. The airstrike caused “serious damage” to three Soviet-era thermal power plants, Ukrainian authorities said.
The Russian Defense Ministry noted that it had used long-range weapons launched from its ships and from its bombers. For example, there were high-precision weapons such as Kinjal hypersonic missile systems.
Russia attacked Ukrainian power grid facilities and military industry facilities. “As a result of the attack, Ukraine’s ability to produce military equipment and to transport Western weapons and military equipment to the contact line has been significantly reduced,” the Russian ministry said. This latest attack was a response “to the Kyiv regime’s attempts to punish Russian energy facilities,” he added.
In this regard, pro-Russian authorities in Luhansk reported Ukrainian attacks against a fuel depot in the regional capital. “Five workers at the depot were injured and were hospitalized,” the organization’s leader, Leonid Passechnik, wrote on Telegram.
The attack caused a large fire and also burned a high-pressure gas pipeline, causing a power outage in homes in the area, he added. Passetchnik assumes that the Ukrainians used American ATACMS missiles.
