Miners walk after finishing their working shift at a coal mine in the western part of Donbass, October 11, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. , Photo courtesy: AFP
Russia said on Monday (October 14, 2024) that iIt has captured the village of Levadne in southern Ukraine Because it tests vulnerabilities along the war’s roughly 1,000-kilometre (600-mile) front line, including the eastern sectors that are the main focus of Moscow’s military effort before winter arrives.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials reported no nighttime martyr drone strikes in the country for the first time in nearly six weeks, five days after they said they struck a martyr storage facility in Russia’s Krasnodar region, where alleged Normally about 400 drones were kept.
Levadne in the Zaporizhia region was initially seized by the Russians during a full-scale offensive that began on February 24, 2022, but it was recaptured by Ukrainian forces during a counter-offensive in the summer of 2023.
Ukrainian officials did not comment about the possible capture of Levadne, although they had previously noted that Russian forces were gathering troops there and carrying out local attacks late last week.
Ukraine’s military is straining to contain Russia’s military might, particularly in the eastern Donetsk region, and they do not have the manpower or weapons to launch their own offensive. Although Russia’s advantage is increasing, its steady advance is slowing down as the Ukrainians are pushed back.
Ukraine says it needs more Western help to stop Russian aggression.
Russia illegally annexed four regions of Ukraine, including Zaporizhia, in September 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from all four regions as a main condition of a potential peace deal – a demand that Ukraine and the West have rejected.
Last week, the Ukrainian General Staff reported a direct attack on a Shahid drone warehouse inside Russia.
“The destruction of the Martyr drone storage base will significantly reduce the ability of the Russian occupiers to terrorize peaceful residents of Ukrainian towns and villages,” it said at the time.
Ukrainian officials are keen to show the West that they are not giving up the fight against their larger neighbor. The incursion into Russia’s Kursk border area has kept Ukrainian troops on Russian soil for more than two months.
The Russians are managing to recapture some territory in Kursk, but the Ukrainians are capturing even more territory, according to Oleksandr Kovalenko, a military analyst at the Kiev-based think tank Information Resistance.
he told The Associated Press That the onset of winter fog and rain will affect the use of drones – a key element in Ukraine’s military strategy.
Ukraine has deployed sophisticated long-range drones to attack targets inside Russia, including airfields, oil refineries and ammunition depots.
The Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate said on Monday it destroyed a Russian military transport plane, a Tu-134, at a military airfield in Russia’s Orenburg region.
Meanwhile, Russia on Monday launched a ballistic missile attack on port infrastructure in the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa, killing one person and wounding eight others, as well as damaging two merchant ships.
Ukraine’s Restored Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said on his Telegram channel that grain storage facilities, cargo cranes, administrative buildings, port equipment and vehicles were damaged in the attack.
Recent attacks on Odessa port facilities appear to be aimed at disrupting the country’s exports of grain and other foodstuffs.
published – October 14, 2024 10:53 PM IST