Lviv, Ukraine, Feb 27 (EFE).- Ukraine’s armed forces have repelled over 80 Russian attacks with the Kremlin concentrating its offensive along the Kupiansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Shakhtarsk front lines, Ukraine military officials reported on Monday
“The Russian Federation continues to wage full-scale armed aggression against Ukraine,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in its latest operational update.
“Over the past day, our defenders repelled 81 occupiers’ attacks in these areas. The enemy is attempting to destroy the critical infrastructure of our state, continues strikes, artillery shelling of civilian objects and houses of the civilian population. The enemy constantly conducts aerial reconnaissance to adjust their strikes,” the report added.
Ukraine says it has shot down 11 of 14 Iranian drones overnight, nine of which were shot down over the Kyiv region, Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv City military administration said.
Air raid sirens sounded in the capital for over five hours and no casualties were reported.
In the Zaporizhzhia region, more than 30 settlements came under enemy fire, according to a report as cited in English by the Ukrinform state news agency.
Although the damage is still being assessed, the city council has reported on Telegram that there have been no victims, but significant material damage.
In Khmelnytskyi, one person was killed and four more were injured following a drone attack, mayor Oleksandr Symchyshyn wrote on Telegram.
“Another massive terrorist attack on the Khmelnytskyi community. This time, the enemy used UAVs. There is information about 1 killed and 4 injured,” he said.
According to the United Kingdom’s latest defense intelligence update, Russian forces have reported at least 14 explosions around the occupied southeastern city of Mariupol, which lies around 80 kilometers from the front line, since February 21.
“Sites of the incidents have included an ammo cache at the airport, two fuel depots, and a steel works that Russia uses as a military base.”
According to UK intelligence “Russia will likely be concerned that unexplained explosions are occurring in a zone it had probably previously assessed as beyond the range of routine Ukrainian strike capabilities.”
Mariupol is important to Russian president Vladimir Putin’s plans “because it is the largest city Russia captured in 2022 that it still controls.”
The occupation of Mariupol allowed the Kremlin to create a land bridge to Crimea, which Russia occupied and annexed in 2014, one of Putin’s key war aims. EFE
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