WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine's army reports new gains against Russian forces near Bakhmut

Counterattacking Ukrainian forces have advanced up to 1,400 metres at a number of sections of the front line near the eastern city of Bakhmut in the past day, a military spokesman said on Saturday.

The advance is the latest in a series of similar gains reported this week by Kyiv near Bakhmut, which Russia said it had fully captured last month after the bloodiest and longest battle since it began its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

"We're trying...to conduct strikes on the enemy, we're counterattacking. We've managed to advance up to 1,400 metres on various sections of the front," the spokesperson for the eastern military command said, when asked about fighting near Bakhmut.

Serhiy Cherevaty, the official, said in televised comments that Russian forces were themselves trying to counterattack but that they had not been successful.

Ukrainian forces, he said, had inflicted heavy Russian troop casualties and destroyed military hardware in the area.

Reuters was not able to independently verify that assertion or the situation on the battlefield.

Moscow and Kyiv both reported heavy fighting in Ukraine on Friday, with bloggers describing the first sightings of German and U.S. armour, signalling that Ukraine's long-anticipated counterattack was under way.

Russia, which has built extensive fortifications in Ukraine's occupied east and south, said this week that a big push by Kyiv had failed to break through Russian lines.

Britain's Ministry of Defence said that Ukrainian forces have penetrated the first line of Russian defences in some areas but that Kyiv's progress had been slower in others.

Officials in Ukraine, which has been poised to launch a broad counteroffensive for weeks, denies its much-anticipated push has begun and says that when it does it will be obvious.

** Russian strikes kill three in Odesa, hit Poltava air base, Ukraine says

Russia fired missiles and drones at targets across Ukraine in the early hours of Saturday, killing three civilians in the Black Sea city of Odesa and striking a military air field in the central Poltava region, Kyiv authorities said.

The attacks, in which a 29-year-old was also killed in the northeast Kharkiv region according to officials, were the latest in a spate of overnight strikes that Russia has intensified as Kyiv sets its sights on a major counter-offensive.

The Air Force said the attacks involved eight ground-launched missiles and 35 strike drones. Air defence units managed to down 20 drones and two cruise missiles, it said.

"As a result of the air fight, debris from one of the drones fell onto a high-rise apartment, causing a fire," the southern military command's spokesperson Natalia Humeniuk said of the attack on Odesa.

Firefighters battled overnight to put out the fire in the 10-storey block in a residential area of the city, footage released by the military showed.

The morning light revealed a gaping crater in the ground several metres wide next to the damaged building and a children's playground, a Reuters photographer said.

Three people were killed including a couple who lived on the eighth floor of the building and a man who had been outside at the time of the attack, authorities said.

At least 27 other people, including three children, were hurt, the emergency services said.

The first drone strike came around midnight and was followed by three more. Air raid sirens blared repeatedly through the night.

Russia also fired drones and ballistic and cruise missiles at the Poltava region, inflicting "some damage of infrastructure and equipment" at the Myrhorod military airfield, the regional governor said.

Ten drones attacked two areas of the Kharkiv region, which borders Russia and also backs onto the front line, wounding a 39-year-old man and killing one other person, governor Oleh Synehubov.

Ukraine also shot down two drones over the Dnipropetrovsk region where no damage was reported, its governor Serhiy Lysak said.

** Trudeau announces military aid, addresses Ukraine parliament

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced $500 million in new military aid for Ukraine during an unannounced trip to war-time Kyiv on Saturday, as Ukraine girds for a counteroffensive against Russian forces and grapples with regular air strikes.

Trudeau paid his respects at a memorial to Ukrainian soldiers killed fighting pro-Russian forces since 2014, met President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and addressed Ukraine's parliament.

"We will be there with (you) as much as it takes, for as long as it takes," he said, in footage of the talks released by Kyiv authorities, as he sat across from the Ukrainian leader.

NATO member Canada, which has one of the world's largest Ukrainian diasporas, has supplied military and financial assistance to Kyiv since Russia invaded in February 2022.

Ukraine wants to join the NATO military alliance as fast as it can, but Zelenskiy has recognised that cannot happen while the war with Russia is raging.

"Canada supports Ukraine to become a NATO member as soon as conditions allow for it. Ukraine and Canada look forward to addressing these issues at the NATO Summit in Vilnius in July 2023," said a joint declaration adopted after the talks.

Trudeau was applauded at length as he spoke in parliament for 25 minutes, denouncing the Russian invasion and praising Ukraine's democratic development.

He said Ukraine's resistance was about "the future of us all. You are the tip of the spear that is determining the future of the 21st century."

Zelenskiy said Ukraine was grateful to Canadians for their support and extended thanks.

As Trudeau visited Kyiv, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly announced that a Russian-registered Antonov-124 cargo plane was seized at Toronto's airport, Ottawa's first such seizure of an asset aimed at putting pressure on Moscow.

The Canadian prime minister was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, a Ukrainian speaker.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

West doesn’t want to listen to Russia’s concerns – Kremlin

The West’s accusations of Russia are an attempt to cover up its lack of desire to listen to Moscow’s concerns, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Peskov made the statement in an interview with Pavel Zarubin for the "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin." program, a fragment of which the journalist posted to his Telegram channel.

"There are accusations from Washington, from European capitals that Russia is aggressive and so on. This is just an attempt to camouflage their unwillingness to listen to our concerns," he said.

** Russian forces eliminate about 60 Ukrainian troops in Krasny Liman area

Russian forces neutralized an enemy subversive and reconnaissance group and destroyed up to 60 Ukrainian troops in the Krasny Liman area and an ammo depot in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) over the past 24 hours, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Saturday.

"A Ukrainian subversive and reconnaissance group was eliminated near Chervonaya Dibrova in the Lugansk People’s Republic. Over the past 24 hours, the enemy losses [in the Krasny Liman area] amounted to over 60 Ukrainian personnel, an infantry fighting vehicle, two armored fighting vehicles, three motor vehicles, Krab, Gvozdika and Akatsiya self-propelled artillery systems, as well as a D-20 howitzer," Konashenkov said.

According to the general, Battlegroup Center’s aircraft and artillery hit enemy units near Yampolovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Nevskoye and Belogorovka in the LPR, as well as in the Serebryansky forestry area.

"An ammunition depot of the 66th mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces was destroyed near Petrovskoye in the Lugansk People’s Republic," he added.

Reuters/Tass