Russian forces proceed to focus on civilian infrastructure in cities and villages throughout Ukraine as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated Ukrainian troops are heading off repeated Russian assaults on the strategic japanese city of Bakhmut and after stories of a lethal Russian navy vary taking pictures.
The Normal Employees of Ukraine’s Armed Forces stated early on October 16 that Russian forces had focused greater than 30 cities and villages throughout Ukraine, launching 5 missile and 23 air strikes and as much as 60 rocket assaults up to now 24 hours.
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In response, Ukraine’s air forces carried out 32 strikes, hitting 24 Russian targets, it stated.
Russia has misplaced floor within the almost seven weeks since Ukraine’s armed forces opened their counteroffensive within the northeast, east, and south.
This week, the Kremlin launched what are believed to be its largest coordinated air and missile raids since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
The intensified Russian air strikes got here after the Crimea Bridge, which holds necessary strategic and symbolic worth to Russia in its faltering conflict in Ukraine, was hit on October 8 by what Moscow says was a truck bomb.
Combating is now reported to be particularly fierce within the japanese areas of Donetsk and Luhansk, in addition to the strategically necessary area of Kherson within the south.
The positions of Ukraine’s southern forces have been attacked a number of instances on October 15 and a small “taking pictures battle” passed off close to the village of Tryfonivka (in Kherson), Ukraine’s Armed Forces southern command stated on October 16.
Russian forces additionally fired almost 20 Russian-made Grad rockets on the proper financial institution of the Dnieper River within the Kherson area, it stated.
An administration constructing utilized by Russia-backed separatists within the metropolis of Donetsk was broken on October 16 in what the Russia-backed separatist stated was Ukrainian shelling.
Pictures circulating on social media confirmed plumes of smoke swirling across the constructing, rows of blown-out home windows and {a partially} collapsed ceiling. RIA Novosti and native media additionally reported that three automobiles parked close by had burnt out because of the strike.
Kyiv didn’t instantly declare duty or touch upon the assault.
The Russian Protection Ministry stated on October 15 that its forces had killed an unspecified variety of Ukrainian troopers and destroyed 5 tanks close to the Kakhovka Reservoir on the Dnieper River.
RFE/RL can’t independently confirm claims by both facet in areas of intense combating.
In his night deal with on October 15, Zelenskiy stated Ukrainian troops have been nonetheless holding the strategic japanese city of Bakhmut regardless of repeated Russian assaults whereas the state of affairs within the bigger Donbas area remained very tough.
Russian forces have repeatedly tried to grab Bakhmut, which sits on a most important highway resulting in the cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk. Each are positioned within the Donetsk area.
Zelenskiy additionally stated Russian missiles and drones had continued to hit Ukrainian cities, inflicting destruction and casualties.
“We maintain our positions,” Zelenskiy stated. “Typically, within the east and south, we do all the pieces to make the occupiers really feel that they haven’t any prospects. Irrespective of who they ship to struggle towards us, it can solely finish in defeat for them.”
Zelenskiy stated virtually 65,000 Russians had been killed thus far because the February 24 invasion, a determine far larger than Moscow’s official September 21 estimate of 5,937 lifeless. In August the Pentagon stated Russia has suffered between 70,000 and 80,000 casualties, both killed or wounded.
The stories of elevated combating got here as two males fired at troopers on a Russian navy firing vary close to Ukraine on October 15, killing 11 and wounding 15 earlier than being slain themselves, the Russian Protection Ministry stated.
The ministry stated in a press release that the taking pictures passed off within the Belgorod area in southwestern Russia that borders Ukraine. It stated two males from an unnamed former Soviet republic fired on volunteer troopers throughout goal follow and have been killed by return hearth.
The ministry known as the incident a terrorist assault.
“A horrible occasion occurred on our territory, on the territory of one of many navy items,” the governor of the Belgorod area, Vyacheslav Gladkov, stated early on October 16.
“Many troopers have been killed and wounded…. There are not any residents of the Belgorod area among the many wounded and killed,” Gladkov stated in a video put up on the Telegram messaging app.
The taking pictures comes amid a hasty mobilization ordered by President Vladimir Putin to beef up Russian forces in Ukraine — a transfer that has triggered protests and an exodus from Russia of a whole bunch of 1000’s, primarily to neighboring nations.
Putin stated on October 14 that over 220,000 reservists already had been known as up as a part of an effort to recruit 300,000. He promised the mobilization can be wrapped up in two weeks.
