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Russian Attacks Intensify in Eastern Ukraine Ahead of Expected Offensive


KYIV, Ukraine — Russian forces have attacked dozens of Ukrainian positions across the eastern front, the Ukrainian military said on Monday, as Moscow’s attacks expand and intensify in the face of what Kiev has already seen. warns of possibly the Kremlin’s biggest assault since the first weeks of the war.

Ukraine’s General Staff, the body responsible for military strategy, said in its daily battlefield update that the Russians had fired on about two dozen surrounding towns and villages. BakhmutThe ruined city became the focus of Moscow’s campaign to capture the entire eastern region known as the Donbas.

But the general staff says the chaotic nature of the Russian effort – including a wave of inexperienced recruits and former prisoners of the private military firm Wagner – is limiting its effectiveness.

“There is a complete lack of coordination and interaction between the servicemen of the Russian occupation forces and the so-called mercenaries of the Wagner Group,” it said.

Just as Russia used its overwhelming advantage in artillery early in the war to gain an advantage in eastern Ukraine, it is now deploying hundreds of thousands of newly mobilized troops, according to reports. small group, to probe holes in Ukraine’s defenses. That has forced Ukraine to stretch its troops to deal with the threat.

But while the fighting was brutal – with hundreds of soldiers killed or wounded daily on both sides, according to US and European estimates – neither party achieved any substantial territorial gains for many months. The eastern front remained largely the same, running along a 140-mile stretch of territory forming a jagged crescent.

It remains unclear where and when Moscow will launch a large-scale offensive, but Ukraine’s Defense Minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said on Sunday that tens of thousands of newly mobilized troops have been deployed. to the northeastern and southeastern regions of occupied Ukraine.

He said that Moscow is determined to break through Ukraine’s defenses before the anniversary of the Russian invasion, on February 24. oil from Russia to cover supplies of diesel and gasoline.

To bolster Moscow’s support in other regions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov on Monday embarked on his third tour of Africa in about six months.

Lavrov begins his visit to MaliMali’s foreign ministry said in a statement that he would aim to strengthen defense and security ties. Russia has provided Mali with military aircraft including helicopters, as well as hundreds of military advisers and agents, many of them Western officials say of the Wagner mercenary group.

Before arriving in Mali, Mr. Lavrov visited Iraq on Sunday. He was planning to travel next to Mauritania and Sudan, According to Russian news agency Tass.

While Mr. Lavrov was leaving Russia, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog was entering. He will meet Russian officials – though not President Vladimir V. Putin – in Moscow this week to discuss security at the occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Facility. Power plant in southern Ukraine, news duty.

Rafael Mariano Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has spent months trying to broker an agreement to create a demilitarized security zone around the nuclear facility, which is regularly blocked shelling. Last month, he met with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. Last week, Mr. Grossi said that the negotiation process is “too slow and requires more determined efforts from all sides.”

But those problems are a world away from the crescent-shaped eastern front in Ukraine. On the northern edge is the Russian-held city of Kreminna, where fierce battles are raging in the surrounding forests. Kreminna is where Ukraine’s counter-offensive in September stalled after driving Russian troops out of northeastern Kharkiv, and it is now one of the areas where Ukrainian officials say Moscow is gathering troops for an offensive. new attack.

At the center of the crescent is Bakhmut, the site of one of the bloodiest and longest battles of the war, where Russia has made slow progress in its months-long siege of the city. Lieutenant Roman Konon, who is fighting in the city with the “Freedom” battalion of the Ukrainian National Guard, said Russia continues to attack with “unprecedented force”.

“First, the infantry units of the occupier conducted combat reconnaissance, then a barrage of artillery shelling began and the infantry assault was repeated,” he said in a video message released by Reuters. broadcast on Ukrainian national television.

Despite Russia’s “small offensive successes,” he said, Ukrainian forces still control a highway that allows resupply into the city.

On the southern edge of the crescent, near the town of Vuhledar, Ukraine said Russian attacks were repelled. But Ukrainian officials warn that tens of thousands of Russian troops have already been deployed to the region and could rally for a more coordinated attack.

President Zelensky speak on Sunday night that Russian forces were determined to avenge their defeats in the first year of the war, and that the “fierce battles” being fought on the front were likely to become increasingly fierce. .

“We have no choice but to defend ourselves and win,” he said.

Cassandra Vinograd And Elian Peltier contribution report.

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