2023-08-07 11:40:00
7.08.2023 13:40
(Akt. 7.08.2023 13:50)
Shelling reported from Kherson ©APA/AFP
According to information from Kiev, several people were killed in renewed Russian shelling in the Kharkiv region and in the southern Ukrainian city of Cherson. Two people were killed in the village of Kucherivka in the Kupyansk district and three others were injured, said the head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak, in Kiev on Monday. He had previously reported on a dead and injured in Cherson. Meanwhile, Russia and Ukraine exchanged prisoners once more.
Yermak published a photo of a house on fire. A woman was killed in the nine-story apartment building in Cherson, and two firefighters suffered heat stroke. The military governor of the region, Olexander Prokudin, spoke of a difficult night for Kherson. The Russian army fired on houses in the center of Cherson. Several citizens were injured.
Russia occupies most of the area and from there repeatedly shells Cherson, which was liberated by Ukrainian troops last year. Moscow had announced that it would wage war in the annexed regions of Cherson, Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhia until the areas were completely under Russian control. Russia had included the four regions in its constitution as new parts of the state in the course of the war that began on February 24, 2022.
Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maljar said in Kiev on Monday that Russian troops had also intensified their fire in eastern Ukraine. In the Kharkov region they tried to regain positions lost last autumn. “They have a plan, they want to take back those areas in the Kharkiv region that they lost following we liberated them,” she said. Meanwhile, Ukraine is continuing to try to liberate all occupied territories with a counter-offensive, including the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed in violation of international law in 2014.
The Russian air defense, for its part, reported shooting down a drone over Russia’s Kaluga Oblast. The incident happened in the Fersikovsky district, the governor of the region, Vladislav Shapsha, said on the short message service Telegram. There were no consequences for people or the infrastructure. Kaluga Oblast borders in the north on Moscow Oblast, which surrounds the Russian capital of the same name; Kaluga does not share a border with Ukraine. It is unclear who launched the drone.
According to British assessments, the Russian Air Force achieved only minor successes in the war of aggression once morest the Ukraine, despite great effort. During the summer, the Air Force flew more than 100 missions a day, the Ministry of Defense said in London on Monday. However, these were almost always limited to operations over Russian-controlled territory. Russia is therefore increasingly using so-called free-fall bombs with sliding attachments to extend the range, the British Ministry of Defense announced. These bombs might be dropped from planes many kilometers from the target, but have not yet consistently proven their accuracy, London said. “At the beginning of Ukraine’s counter-offensive in the south from June 2023, Russian attack helicopters were very effective,” the British ministry further commented. However, Russia has apparently not recently managed to build up an effective tactical air force in the south.
Andriy Yermak said 22 Ukrainian soldiers were released during the most recent exchange of prisoners. Among them were two officers, non-commissioned officers and privates who fought on different fronts. Some of them were injured. A video published on Telegram shows soldiers, wrapped in blue and yellow Ukrainian flags, posing for photos and shouting “Glory to Ukraine!” The head of the presidential office in Kiev said the oldest of the released soldiers was 54 and the youngest 23. There is no immediate comment from Russia.
According to previous information from Kiev, around 2,600 Ukrainians have returned from captivity since Russia’s invasion on February 24, 2022. In most cases, the warring factions hand over roughly the same number of fighters as the other side.
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