Russia-Ukraine war: Russian offensive near Yahidne unsuccessful, Kyiv says

The Ukrainian military said Russian forces were unable to succeed in their offensive near the town of Yahidne over the weekend. This follows the claim by the Russian Wagner mercenary group that they captured the village in eastern Ukraine near the area where intense fighting is still taking place.

In a morning update on Sunday, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said that Russia keeps concentrating its offensives along the Bakhmut front line, where Yahidne is located. The fight for Bakhmut has been the bloodiest so far since Russia’s invasion back in February last year. The update said the attacks continue and that there were “unsuccessful” offensives by Russian forces close to six settlements, including Yahidne and Berkhivka in the Donetsk region.

Ukraine’s update on Sunday said Russian forces shelled areas of at least 22 settlements along the part of the front line in Donetsk in the past day. Ukraine had also repelled 71 in Donetsk and elsewhere along the front lines.

This follows the claim by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin on Saturday, saying that his group captured Yahidne. On Friday, Prigozhin claimed that they captured Berkhivka. While Russia has made progress in its aim to encircle Bakhmut, it has failed to capture the city in time for Russian leader Vladimir Putin to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the invasion.

The British defense ministry, in its intelligence update on Monday, said that pro-Russian officials last week reported at least 14 explosions around the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol. The ministry said the sites where the explosions occurred included an ammo cache at the airport, two fuel depots, and a steelworks facility that Moscow is using as a military base. Mariupol is at least 80 kilometers away from the front lines.

“Russia will likely be concerned that unexplained explosions are occurring at a zone it had probably assessed as beyond the range of routine Ukrainian strike capabilities. Although widely devastated earlier in the war, Mariupol is important to Russia because it is the largest city Russia captured in 2022 that it still controls, and sits on a key logistical route,” said the ministry.