Moscow has been preparing since last autumn for an expected onslaught by Ukraine, and built lines of anti-tank fortifications along hundreds of miles of front.
KYIV, Ukraine – Russia said on Friday, May 12, that Ukrainian forces had attacked Russian positions along almost 100 km of the front line near Soledar, a small mining town near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine that Moscow’s forces seized in January.
Reuters was not able to verify the battlefield reports, and there was no immediate response from Kyiv, which during previous offensives has maintained strict silence about its operations while they were under way. Without giving details, Ukrainian deputy defense minister Maliar said Kyiv’s forces had advanced by about 2 km this week around Bakhmut without ceding any ground. A claim of such swift progress is rare in an attritional battle in which Russia has made incremental advances over the last 10 months without being able to claim the city.
“We used to go out and watch . Especially at night, you could see the flashes as they launch,” said Lyudmila, a 22-year-old from Kamianka-Dniprovska now in makeshift accommodation in the Russian-controlled Ukrainian port of Berdyansk.In comments published on Friday, the commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet said its defenses were also being tightened amid a flurry of Ukrainian drone strikes targeting its home base, the Crimean port of Sevastopol.
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