Ukraine War: Russia intensifies attack on Donetsk

Russia’s soldiers have continued to launch attacks along the front, focusing on two Ukrainian cities in the eastern Donetsk region.

Ukraine’s military said fighting was strongest in the Western approaches to Bakhmut, one of two eastern cities targeted by Russia’s troops, along with Avdiivka.

For months, Russian forces have besieged Bakhmut in the longest struggle in more than a year of conflict.

According to the ministry, the forces damaged Ukrainian army warehouses in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk that housed missiles, ammunition, and artillery.

Control of Bakhmut could allow Russia to directly target Ukrainian defensive lines in Chasiv Yar in the east, and open the way for its forces to advance on two bigger cities it has long coveted in the Donetsk region: Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said Russian forces controlled the centre of Bakhmut, with much of their actions now focusing on the city’s railway station.

“There is heavy fighting in the city centre and the enemy is gradually moving toward the western outskirts,” Zhdanov said.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy blasted Russian air strikes on Orthodox Palm Sunday in a nightly weekend video address, saying Moscow was further isolating itself from the rest of the world.

He praised several units defending positions in the east and said he hoped Palm Sunday next year “will take place with peace and freedom for all our people”.