Are Russians attempting to stretch Ukrainians by intensifying fighting in Donetsk. forcing Ukrainians to move the troops away from Kherson? That front line must be 1500km long.
August 9, 2022
The cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, located just across from one another, are the last major Ukrainian outposts in the eastern Donbass region. Ukrainian military officials say Russian forces have mounted a renewed ground offensive to consolidate control over the Donbass region. "In the Donetsk direction, the enemy is conducting an offensive operation, concentrating its main efforts on the Bakhmut and Avdiivka directions. It uses ground attack and army aviation," the Ukrainian General Staff reportedly said on Facebook.
The new Russian offensive has been accompanied by a sharp uptick in shelling and missile attacks against major Ukrainian cities and defensive positions. “The situation in the region is tense – shelling is constant throughout the front line … According to Reuters, the enemy is also using air strikes a great deal,” Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko told Ukrainian media. The southern district of Nikopol was reportedly hit by as many as sixty Russian rockets, damaging dozens of buildings and leaving thousands of locals without access to water. “After midnight, the Russian army struck the Nikopol area with (Soviet-era) Grad rockets, and the Kryvyi Rih area from barrel artillery,” Ukrainian official Valentyn Reznichenko wrote on Telegram.
