Ukraine claims to have taken over a town near Kharkiv in the northeast of the country
Russian troops shelled a major rail hub and supply line for Ukrainian troops in the east of the country, video footage released Thursday and Friday showed.
The video shows burning railway trucks in the town of Lyman, a few kilometers east of Sloviansk, in the Donetsk region.
The Russians were trying “to advance from the north of the region, the neighboring region of Kharkiv – in the direction of Lyman, and do everything possible to obtain a direct route to Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, achieving their strategic objectives in the region of Donetsk,” Pavlo said. Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional military administration.
Kyrylenko insisted that “the enemy cannot break through. The town of Lyman is under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”
However, he said the Russians were using artillery and airstrikes to annihilate the settlements and prevent the Ukrainian defenders from fortifying their positions.
Excluding the city of Mariupol, nearly 1.7 million people lived in the government-controlled parts of Donetsk on the eve of the war, Kyrylenko added. There are now around 370,000 civilians in the area.
A bit of context: Lyman has been shelled as Russian troops continue their military offensive in the eastern regions of Ukraine.
On Friday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces said Russian forces were also trying to inflict air strikes in eastern Ukraine.
The Izium region, located in the Kharkiv region, has become a staging ground for Russian forces as they attempt to advance through neighboring Donetsk and Lugansk. No offensive operation in this area has been carried out in recent hours, the Ukrainian army said.
“The main effort was focused on reconnaissance, identifying defensive positions of units of the Ukrainian Defense Forces and hitting them with artillery fire,” the General Staff said.
Further to the south-east, “in order to prevent the redeployment of our troops, the enemy is bombarding the positions with artillery, mortars and multiple rocket launchers along the entire line of contact”, he said. added.
CNN’s Julia Kesaieva contributed reporting for this post.