WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
No letup in Russian strikes on Ukrainian town of Avdiivka
Russia's military pressed on with fierce assaults on the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka on Saturday, with shelling so fierce that emergency crews were unable to recover the dead from wrecked buildings, the town's top administrative official said.
It was the fifth straight day of assaults on the town in Ukraine's industrial heartland of Donbas, focal point of Moscow's 19-month-old invasion of its neighbour.
Both Russia and the United States have described the upsurge in violence around Avdiivka as a new Russian offensive.
Fighting intensified in other sectors of the 1,000-km-long (600-mile) front. One top Ukrainian commander said clashes further north had "significantly worsened", while another said Russian losses were mounting in the war's southern sectors.
Vitaliy Barabash, head of Avdiivka's military administration, said residents had experienced a rare overnight respite from air strikes, but attacks had resumed at daybreak.
"They are striking with everything they have. Bouts of shooting, artillery, multiple rocket launchers, mortars and a lot of aircraft," Barabash told national television.
All rescue operations had been halted, he said, amid reports of people believed to be trapped under rubble of buildings levelled by shelling and air strikes.
"Operations cannot take place in such conditions. It is frightening to leave because the road is under fire. And no easier to stay as there is no place, no basement that can withstand the strikes."
Barabash said 1,620 residents remained in Avdiivka, a town with a large coking plant and a pre-war population of 32,000.
Oleksandr Stupun, a military spokesperson, said Avdiivka was important for Moscow "because it is the only chance to show some kind of victory. They have no other options."
Russian forces in the area, he told national television, "have been increasing for four days in a row. That's why the enemy is taking revenge on the civilian population."
The town, 20 km (12 miles) west of the Russian-held town of Donetsk, has become a watchword for resistance. It held off attacks in 2014 when Russian-backed separatists seized areas of eastern Ukraine and has undergone serious fortification since.
A four-month-old Ukrainian counteroffensive has made some progress in both the east, near the shattered city of Bakhmut, taken by Russian troops in May, and in the south, where Kyiv hopes to reach the Sea of Azov. But gains have been incremental.
Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine's ground forces, visited troops near Kupiansk further north and said Russian forces had regrouped after suffering losses.
"The main objective of the enemy is the defeat of a grouping of our troops, the encirclement of Kupiansk and to reach the Oskil River," a military platform quoted him as saying.
A four-month-old Ukrainian counteroffensive has made some progress in the east, near Bakhmut, and in the south, where Kyiv hopes to reach the Sea of Azov, but gains have been incremental.
General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, head of forces in the south, wrote on Telegram that Ukrainian troops were advancing southward and Russian casualties were "continuing to rise".
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Russia intercepts 27 Ukrainian drones over border regions – MOD
Russian air defenses thwarted multiple attempted Ukrainian drone attacks on the city of Kursk on Saturday night, following several artillery strikes on the region earlier in the day, according to local authorities.
“This evening, 12 drones launched from Ukraine were shot down over Kursk and the Kursk district. Falling debris was recorded in the city limits and the village of Zorino,” Kursk governor Roman Starovoyt wrote on his Telegram channel, adding that no one was injured in the attack.
The Defense Ministry later confirmed that a total of 18 plane-type drones had been intercepted over Kursk, and two more over Belgorod region on Saturday night and early Sunday morning. Overall a total of 27 drones were downed in yet another foiled “terrorist attack by the Kiev regime,” the Russian military said.
Earlier in the day, the Glushkovsky district in Kursk region was shelled from the Ukrainian side leaving the nearby villages without power and causing a fire that was promptly extinguished, according to the governor. Hours later, the village of Tyotkino in the same district was targeted again, causing damage to residential houses and a gas pipe.
“The village of Tyotkino, Glushkovsky district, was again shelled from the Ukrainian side. There were recorded 10 attacks, four houses were damaged… A gas pipe is also damaged,” Starovoyt said. The official urged the residents to stay at a safe distance from the wreckage, promising to provide assistance to the owners of the damaged property.
The Russian border region of Kursk, home to a large Nuclear Power Plant, has been frequently targeted by drones since Moscow launched its military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. Russian officials have repeatedly accused Kiev of plotting acts of sabotage targeting the country’s major infrastructure sites, including nuclear power plants.
Ukraine has significantly stepped up UAV and missile strikes on Russian territory in recent months, amid a ground counteroffensive that has failed to provide Kiev with any notable territorial gains.
** Russia delivers eight multiple-launch strikes at Ukrainian military sites over week
Russian forces delivered eight multiple-launch strikes by Iskander-M tactical missile systems and unmanned aerial vehicles at Ukrainian military sites over the week in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Friday.
"In the period of October 7-13, the Russian Armed Forces delivered eight multiple-launch strikes by Iskander-M tactical missile systems and unmanned aerial vehicles," the ministry said in a statement.
The strikes targeted Ukrainian missile/artillery armament and military equipment depots, workshops of enterprises producing and storing armaments and military hardware, and also the deployment sites of Ukrainian troops, nationalists and foreign mercenaries, the ministry specified.
"The strikes destroyed the following targets: a warehouse storing US-made Willard boats, a field artillery depot of the Ukrainian army’s Joint Battlegroup Kherson, a military hardware depot at the Danube Ship Service ship repair plant in the town of Ilyichevsk in the Odessa Region and also a fuel and lubricants base at the Uman airfield in the Cherkassy Region," the ministry said.
Reuters/RT/Tass