The Russian army on Friday intensified airstrikes against Ukrainian positions, trying to break the deadlock in the offensive in Donbas in eastern Ukraine.

According to Moscow, its troops would advance especially in the battles for control of the city of Soledar, about 10 kilometers northeast of Bakhmut, one of the main bastions of the Ukrainian army in the Donetsk region, reports the EFE agency. , quoted by Agerpres.

Soledar is a key point for controlling the city of Bakhmut, where there is a strategic communications hub, the capture of which will allow Russian forces to focus their offensive efforts on the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, important strongholds of the Ukrainian army, especially the latter in the Donetsk region.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Army, which on Thursday acknowledged the intensification of Russian airstrikes, said on Friday that Russian aircraft had bombed the outskirts of Soledar and Bakhmut, as well as several other nearby towns. However, according to the Ukrainian command, Russian troops have not advanced in this direction.

The Russian army also attacked the outskirts of the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk with air and artillery, and further south, Russian aircraft bombarded Ukrainian positions in Maryintka and Vodyan, located on the outskirts of the city of Donetsk, the regional capital controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014.

According to the Ukrainian camp, Russian troops also tried to advance in the area between the settlements of Veterinarne and Udi, located in the Kharkiv region, located north of Donbas, practically on the border with Russia, but “they did not succeed, they suffered losses and retreated.”

According to military analysts, Kyiv’s main goal will be the recapture of Kherson

On the southern front, the military situation continues to remain without significant changes, and the Russian command claims that during the attack in the area of ​​Mykolaiv, its troops destroyed about 100 Ukrainian soldiers.

The Russian Defense Ministry also claimed that Russian anti-aircraft missiles would have intercepted two Khymars missiles in the southern region of Kherson region, which has been partially under the control of Russian forces since the first days of the invasion, which began on February 24.

The city of Kherson, the capital of the region of the same name, also occupied by Russian forces, is now in the focus of military analysts, who believe that its recovery will be the main goal of Kyiv in the coming weeks after President Volodymyr Zelenskyi ordered the Ukrainian army to vacate the occupied territories in the south a month ago.

The city of Kherson, located on the right bank of the Dnipro River, is separated by this watercourse from the rest of the region of the same name, with which it is connected only by three bridges, all of which are now within reach of Guimars. missiles delivered to Ukraine by the United States.

But Zelensky’s order to return the south of Ukraine has not yet been accompanied by the advancement of Ukrainian troops on the ground in the region, instead there have been successive attacks on the bridges that the Russian army used to supply troops in the Kherson region.

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