The Russian Defense Ministry said that its forces destroyed a military train carrying a battalion of the Ukrainian elite forces in Donetsk Province (east). On the other hand, Ukraine condemned Russian calls to “hang” the fighters of the Azov Brigade.
The ministry confirmed in a statement that it bombed the Ukrainian train with high-precision missiles, killing more than 140 people.
It added that its forces shot down a Ukrainian MiG-29 aircraft and destroyed two US-made M777 howitzers.
It confirmed that the Russian forces killed about 60 Ukrainian soldiers in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, and also targeted two American radars in Donetsk and Kherson.
For its part, the Ukrainian General Staff indicated that Russian artillery and air strikes targeted 14 military and civilian sites in the Kharkiv region.
Battles of the south
The Ukrainian army also announced the killing of more than 100 Russian soldiers in battles in the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions (south).
The Ukrainian army described the battles with the Russian forces as violent, saying that confrontations are still continuing on the Sneherivka and Pashtanka fronts in Mykolaiv.
In a statement, the army reported the destruction of 4 military bases and 12 Russian ammunition depots in various locations in the southern areas of operations.
The Ukrainian Army’s Southern Command said rail traffic to Kherson via the Dnipro River has been halted, which could further isolate Russian forces west of the river from supplies in occupied Crimea and in the east.
Estimates of British defense and intelligence officials – one of Ukraine’s strongest Western allies since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24 – indicate that Russian forces are having trouble maintaining their momentum.
Ukraine has used long-range missile systems acquired from the West to severely damage 3 bridges across the Dnipro River in recent weeks, isolating the city of Kherson according to the assessment of British defense officials, leaving the Russian 49th Army stationed on the west bank of the river in a very vulnerable position.
In an intelligence update on Saturday, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said it was possible that Russia had built two pontoon bridges in the Kherson region and ferry Sirte, to provide alternatives to nearby bridges damaged by Ukrainian strikes.
repositioning
For his part, Oleksiy Aristovich, adviser to the Ukrainian president, said that the Russian army has moved large sectors of its forces in the northeastern regions of Ukraine towards several axes from the south of the country, which is witnessing raging confrontations.
Aristovich expected that the Russian forces would be ready for a new phase of escalation against southern Ukraine on August 5th.
“Ukrainian forces will be on the lookout for them and will continue to destroy them,” he added.
Accusations
Regarding the bombing of a detention center for Ukrainian prisoners in Donetsk, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that the death toll had risen to 50 dead, in addition to 73 wounded.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that the full political, criminal and moral responsibility for the “bloody massacre of Ukrainian prisoners” lies personally with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, his “criminal” regime, and Washington.
Moscow had accused Kyiv of this bombing, and the Russian Investigative Committee said that Ukrainian forces “bombed the prison where members of the Azov battalion are being detained, using American HIMARs missiles,” which Kyiv denied, saying that Russian artillery targeted the prison to hide the mistreatment of detainees there.
In turn, Ukraine condemned today, Saturday, Russian calls to “hang” the fighters of the Azov Brigade or cause them another kind of “humiliating death”.
“Read this when they tell you that Russia should not be isolated,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said on Twitter. hold them accountable.”
Nikolenko was responding to a tweet in English posted by the Russian embassy in the United Kingdom on Friday evening, and Twitter considered it “violating its rules related to outrageous behaviour”, but it remained available because it may be “of public interest”.
“The Azov fighters deserve to be executed, not by a firing squad but by hanging, they are not actual soldiers, they deserve a humiliating death,” the tweet read.
For his part, Andrei Yermak, chief of staff to President Volodymyr Zelensky, responded via Telegram, saying that “Russia is a terrorist state, in the 21st century, only savages and terrorists can say on the diplomatic level that people deserve to be hanged.”
