Russia has fired missiles against locations all around Ukraine, including Zhytomyr in the west, Odesa in the south, and Kharkiv in the north.
In Kharkiv and Odesa, there were damages to buildings and infrastructure, and there were blackouts in a few locations. Furthermore reported are attacks on Kyiv, the country’s capital.
The attacks take place as the fierce ground battle for the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut continues.
According to a US intelligence chief, the conflict might drag on for years.
Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, started his invasion just over a year ago. Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians have now died or been injured, and millions more Ukrainians have fled their homes.
Emergency services are present at the locations of explosions in Kyiv’s western and southern neighborhoods, where the mayor, Vitaly Klitschko, claimed explosions had occurred.
Mr. Klitschko warned people to seek cover after claiming that cars were on fire in the courtyard of one residential building.
Power outages were caused by a mass missile attack that hit an energy facility in the port city of Odesa, according to its governor Maksym Marchenko. Even though there were no casualties reported, residential areas were also impacted.
According to the head of the regional administration, Oleg Synegubov, “around 15” strikes targeted “important infrastructure facilities” and a residential building in Kharkiv city and the surrounding area.
Vynnytsia and Rivne in the west, Dnipro and Poltava in the center, and other areas are also affected.
Avril Haines, the US Director of National Intelligence, speculated on Wednesday that President Putin may be preparing to prolong the conflict for years but that Russia was unable to mount significant fresh offensives this year.
She claimed that the conflict in Ukraine had devolved into a “attritional grinding war” in which neither side has a clear military edge.
Putin most likely believes that lengthening the war, including with potential pauses in the fighting, may be his best remaining pathway to eventually securing Russia’s strategic interests in Ukraine, even if it takes years, she said. “We do not foresee the Russian military recovering enough this year to make major territorial gains,” she said.
According to Ms. Haines, Russia may decide to defend the areas it now controls. She also stated that the country would require further “mandated mobilization and third-party ammunition sources” in order to maintain even its current level of activities in Ukraine.
Despite Russian forces claimed to have gained control of Bakhmut’s eastern half, the Ukrainian military claims it has repelled fierce Russian attacks on the city.
Russia has been attempting to seize Bakhmut for months, as both forces suffer significant casualties in a bloody attrition war.
The significance of Bakhmut for Russia and Ukraine
The general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces declared that “the enemy maintained its advances and has showed no sign of a let-up in seizing the city of Bakhmut”. Attacks on Bakhmut and the adjacent communities were repelled by our defenders.
Since the war for the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut started last summer, between 20,000 and 30,000 Russian troops have died or been injured, according to Western officials. The figures cannot be independently verified.
