Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday that Russian forces fired shots at Ukrainian posts and residential areas in the country’s east overnight and launched new rocket attacks, while fortifying positions there with new deployments of air defense systems.
Ukrainian officials are still investigating allegations by Ukrainian forces that they came under a Russian chemical attack in Mariupol, where Russia is still fighting to consolidate gains in the city, which Moscow has been known to occupy in eastern Ukraine and west. considers it important for its efforts to push towards The Russian government has not publicly commented on the alleged use of chemical weapons in Mariupol.
Russia’s defense ministry said it was launching air and artillery strikes on Ukrainian targets in Mariupol.
In his first extended remarks on the war since last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that the main goal of the offensive was to “help the people in the Donbass”, in another sign that his forces would launch an assault on the eastern sector. He said the goal would “no doubt” be achieved, during a visit to the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a Russian spaceport in the country’s Far East, with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko.
Britain’s defense ministry said fighting continues near the cities of Kherson and Mykolaiv in the south of Ukraine and that Russia continues to push the Donbass into the war effort. British intelligence said Russia would continue to redeploy its troops from Belarus to the Ukrainian east and possibly try to capture the eastern city of Kramatorsk, where a deadly missile attack took place last week.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said on Tuesday that high-precision air- and sea-based missiles destroyed an ammunition depot and a hangar with Ukrainian aircraft at Starokostyantyiv military airfield in the western Khmelnitsky region overnight. Gave, as well as one ammunition. Depot near Havrylivka in the Kyiv region.
Ukraine’s General Staff said the Russians were enhancing air-defense capabilities near Melitopol and Ilovsk and said it had repelled six enemy attacks in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, destroying four Russian tanks and eight artillery systems. gave. Ukraine’s air force said it had shot down a Russian plane, two helicopters and four drones.
Ukrainian officials said they were investigating claims by their troops in the port city of Mariupol that they came under attack from Russian chemical weapons on Monday.
Azov Regiment, the Ukrainian unit stationed in Mariupol, said Russian forces dropped an unidentified chemical substance from a drone, causing respiratory and nervous system symptoms in its soldiers and civilians. There is no independent evidence of an attack from Mariupol.
The regional governor told Russia’s RIA news agency that overnight railway connections were disrupted in the Russian city of Shebekino in the Belgorod region near the Ukrainian border northeast of Kharkiv. He said there were no casualties and the cause of the disruption was being investigated. Russia’s investigative committee said it was investigating what caused the railway line to be disrupted.
Russia heavily uses the railway to reinforce and resupply its troops preparing for the Donbass offensive, and sits on one of its main rail connections to the Shebekino region. Russia said last month that two Ukrainian helicopters carried out an airstrike on a fuel depot in Belgorod, a claim Kyiv did not confirm or deny.
—Mauro Orru and Ivan Gershkovic contributed to this article.