Violent clashes between Ukrainian and Russian forces in the eastern Donetsk city of Bakhmut as air alerts sounded.
In his nightly speech, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said they were repelling continued attacks, and holding their positions in nearby Soledar under very difficult conditions, adding that Bakhmut "resisted despite everything".
In particular, according to the commander of the Freedom battalion of the Ukrainian National Guard Yevgeny Oropai there were several assaults by Russian infantry
during the night
.
You said it on Ukrainian TV, quoted by UNIAN.
"The Russians are trying to attack massively," Oropai said.
And according to the spokesman of the Kiev Army's Eastern Forces Group Sergiy Cherevaty, the situation in the area of the city of Soledar, Donetsk, remains tense.
To stabilize the situation, the Ukrainian command sent additional forces and equipment.
Ukrainian authorities have indeed said that
the army is repelling continued attacks on Bakhmut
and other cities by the Russian mercenary group Wagner, reports the Guardian.
The Ukrainian army said: "The enemy made a new desperate attempt to storm the city of Soledar from different directions and threw the most professional units of the Wagnerites onto the battlefield."
According to what the headquarters of the Territorial Defense of the self-proclaimed Donetsk republic reported this morning, Russian forces have liberated the settlement.
The Tax reports it.
"As of today, Bakhmut has been released," pro-Russians said.
Fierce fighting has been going on for five months
around the eastern Ukrainian city
, with mercenaries from the Wagner Group attacking Ukrainian defenses to breach the defenses around Bakhmut and the Soledar suburb, the epicenter of the battle.
Russian troops also launched a rocket attack on a market
in the town of Shevchenkove, in the eastern region of Kharkiv: a 60-year-old woman was killed, several other civilians were injured.
Quoted by Ukrinform, the head of the Regional Military Administration Oleh Syniehubov said that "the enemy is again launching missile attacks on the Kharkiv region. In the urban-type settlement of Shevchenkove, Kupiansk district, a missile attack was launched on the local market. All emergency services are working on the scene."
The Pope once again speaks of a "third world war"
and asks for an "immediate end to this senseless conflict" in Ukraine.
Recalling that "attacks on civilian infrastructures" in this war "lead people to lose their lives not only due to bombs and violence, but also to hunger and cold", the Pope, speaking to the ambassadors, recalls the Gaudium et spes, according to which "every act of war, which aims indiscriminately at the destruction of entire cities or vast regions and their inhabitants, is a crime against God and against humanity itself and must be condemned firmly and without hesitation".
Meanwhile, German Vice-Chancellor and Minister of Economy and Climate Protection Robert Habeck does not rule out that Germany may decide in the future to supply Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
This was reported by the Russian agency Tass.
"No, that's obviously not out of the question," Habeck told ARD TV channel when asked about the possibility of providing such means to Kiev.
"We are studying the situation, we are aligning our actions with other countries. We will observe how the discussion" on this issue will develop further in Germany", said the minister, according to which
the dynamics of arms supply to Kiev will change depending on the development of the course of hostilities in Ukraine
.
But the Kremlin has warned: the supplies to Ukraine of tanks and other weapons, announced last week by several Western countries, would only 'prolong the suffering'
of the Ukrainians and would not 'change' the balance of power.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Last week, the US and Germany said they would deliver tanks for infantry, while France announced it would send light tanks to Kiev.