Russian Forces Pound Avdiivka for Fourth Straight Day

Ukrainian forces in Donetsk (AFP)
Ukrainian forces in Donetsk (AFP)
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Russian Forces Pound Avdiivka for Fourth Straight Day

Ukrainian forces in Donetsk (AFP)
Ukrainian forces in Donetsk (AFP)

Russian forces pounded the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka for the fourth day in a row on Friday.

In attacks elsewhere in Ukraine, a Russian missile strike killed one person in the city of Pokrovsk, also in the east, while a drone attack in the south killed a women and seriously injured her husband.

"The fighting has been going on for four consecutive days," Vitaliy Barabash, head of the city's military administration, told Ukrainian national television.

"They have substantial reserves of personnel and equipment. Avdiivka is completely ablaze. They shoot, using everything they have. The hospital is again under fire, as are administrative buildings and our volunteer center."

Russia has focused its campaign along the 1,000-km (600-mile) front on the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Russia's representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, said the intensified battles in the east signified a new stage in its campaign.

"Russian troops have, for several days now, switched over to active combat action practically throughout the entire front line," Nebenzia told a session of the UN Security Council, Reuters reported.

"The so-called Ukrainian counteroffensive can therefore be considered finished."

Russian forces abandoned the western bank of the Dnipro River in the Kherson region late last year, but continue to shell towns there from positions on the eastern bank.



Zelenskiy: Russia Used Over 600 Guided Aerial Bombs to Attack Ukraine in Past Week

A Ukrainian serviceman checks a mortar during a military exercise, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kherson region, Ukraine August 1, 2024. REUTERS/Ivan Antypenko
A Ukrainian serviceman checks a mortar during a military exercise, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kherson region, Ukraine August 1, 2024. REUTERS/Ivan Antypenko
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Zelenskiy: Russia Used Over 600 Guided Aerial Bombs to Attack Ukraine in Past Week

A Ukrainian serviceman checks a mortar during a military exercise, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kherson region, Ukraine August 1, 2024. REUTERS/Ivan Antypenko
A Ukrainian serviceman checks a mortar during a military exercise, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kherson region, Ukraine August 1, 2024. REUTERS/Ivan Antypenko

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Russia had used more than 600 guided aerial bombs to attack his country in the past week.
"Russian combat aviation must be destroyed wherever it is, by all effective means. It is also quite fair to strike at Russian airfields. And we need this joint solution with our partners - a security solution," Zelenskiy said in a social media post.

Ukraine's military said on Saturday it had attacked Russia's Morozovsk airfield and a number of oil depots and fuel storage facilities in three Russian regions overnight.

The attack on the airfield hit an ammunition depot where Russian forces stored guided aerial bombs among other equipment, the military said.

The Ukrainian president has repeatedly called on his Western allies for permission to use their weapons for long-range attacks on Russia, in addition to striking military targets close to the border.

The attack on oil depots and fuel and lubricant storage facilities in Belgorod, Kursk and Rostov regions set fire to at least two oil tanks, according to the Ukrainian military report.

In Russia, local officials reported that tanks at a fuel storage depot in the Kamensky district of Rostov region caught fire as a result of a drone attack.

The regional governor of Belgorod also said Ukraine-launched drones caused a fire at an oil storage depot there, adding that the fire was extinguished and no one was injured.
Ukraine has dramatically stepped up its use of long-range drones this year to attack Russian oil facilities, attempting to damage sites fueling Russian forces and the country's economy in Moscow's 29-month-old invasion.