“The enemy has changed tactics”: heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine

Created: 2022-12-10, 6:27 p.m

By: Sandra Kathe, Teresa Toth, Karolin Schäfer, Moritz Serif, Nadja Austel, Nail Akkoyun, Christian Weihrauch, Stefan Krieger, Jan-Frederik Wendt, Lucas Maier, Jan Oeftger

Ukrainian troops are planning an advance in Luhansk.

In the heavily contested town of Bachmut, the situation is getting worse.

The situation in the Ukraine war in the news ticker.

• Power supply:

  Russia arrests power engineer

• Bachmut:

  Selenskyj describes the city as a "burnt ruin".

• Editor's note:

  Read the latest developments in the Ukraine conflict in our news ticker.

  The information on the Ukraine war processed here comes partly from the warring parties in Russia and Ukraine.

  They can therefore not be independently checked in part.

+++ 18:29:

In Ukraine, Russian and Ukrainian troops are fighting fiercely in eastern Ukraine.

"Donbass is the main front in the struggle for Ukraine's independence," Serhiy Cherevatyy, spokesman for Army Group East of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said on television on Saturday.

The focus of the fighting was therefore on the towns of Bakhmut and Avdiivka.

A change in strategy by the Russian military can be observed.

Instead of attacks by larger units, there were now attacks by smaller groups, above all by the mercenary troop "Wagner", supported by barrel and rocket artillery.

"The enemy has changed their tactics," said Cherevaty. 

Ukraine war news: Russia attacks maternity ward in Kherson

+++ 17:37:

Since the beginning of the Ukraine war, alleged Russian war crimes have been investigated in Kiev.

According to Ihor Klymenko, head of the Ukrainian police, a total of around 47,000 Russian war crimes have been registered in Ukraine.

In addition to torture and rape, this also includes the alleged murder of civilians.

At the beginning of December, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office reported 51,161 war crimes.

+++ 16:20:

Russian forces are said to have attacked a maternity ward in Cherson.

"Enemy shells hit the hospital's maternity ward," Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the presidential office, reports on Telegram.

The building was damaged in the process.

According to Tymoshenko, no one was injured in the attack.

A house destroyed by Russian shells in downtown Kherson.

Fighting around the area capital continues.

(Archive image) © Sadak Souici/Le Pictorium/imago

Russian army turns Bakhmut into 'burnt ruins'

+++ 3.31 p.m .:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj complains about the Russian destruction of the city of Bakhmut.

"The occupiers actually destroyed Bakhmut, another Donbass town that the Russian army reduced to burnt ruins," Zelenskyy said in his radio address.

"Bakhmut, Soledar, Marjinka, Kremmina - for a long time there will be no living space in these areas."

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According to Chief of Staff Oleksandr Shtupun, the Russian military is said to have carried out 20 airstrikes across Ukraine on Saturday night (December 10) and fired more than 60 rockets.

In Bachmut, more than 20 housing estates came under fire.

The Ukraine War in Pictures - Destruction, Resistance and Hope

View photo gallery

But the situation is also tense in the port city of Odessa: after Russian rocket attacks, thousands of people are still affected by power outages.

"The repair work is taking more time than usual," said the Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, on his Telegram channel.

So far, it has only been possible to supply important infrastructure objects such as hospitals, maternity wards, pumping stations and thermal power plants with electricity.

News on the Ukraine war: Russia reports advances in eastern Ukraine

+++ 1:35 p.m .:

According to Russian army spokesman Igor Konashenkov, Russia has advanced in the Luhansk and Donetsk areas in eastern Ukraine.

"In the Donetsk area, the Russian units continued their attacks," said Konashenkov.

The Russian military also went on the offensive in the north between the small towns of Kreminna and Lyman.

The information could not be verified independently.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian army is trying to hold its defense lines in front of the industrial city of Donetsk and east of the conurbation between Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.

There is fighting around the small town of Bachmut in particular, with heavy casualties on both sides.

Ukraine War: Power outages after drone attack on Odessa

+++ 11.30 a.m .:

A Russian drone attack on the Odessa region on Saturday night (December 10) significantly damaged the local energy infrastructure.

As the military command announced early in the morning, "thousands" of consumers were without electricity.

So far, it is not possible to predict when the power supply will be restored.

The Russian military "continues its technological terror by attacking energy infrastructure facilities," according to the command on Facebook.

Since Oct. 10, Russia has launched more than 1,000 missiles and drones at Ukraine's energy infrastructure, Volodymyr Kudrytsky, CEO of Ukraine's state-owned grid operator Ukrenergo, recently stated.

War in Ukraine: Ukrainian military plans advance in Luhansk before New Year's Eve

+++ 10:00 a.m .:

The Ukrainian military is planning further advances in the Luhansk region, which is largely held by Russia.

According to the region's Ukrainian military administrator, Serhii Haidai, Russian troops are coming under increasing pressure.

Nevertheless, the reconquest will not be easy.

Russia has "well prepared" its defensive positions around Kreminna and Svatove, Haidai said in an interview.

However, the frozen winter ground, which enables fast movements, is an advantage for the Ukrainian troops.

"I hope that as the New Year approaches, we will hear the news of more liberated towns in the region," Haidai said.

Partisan operations are also planned in the region, which could lead to further explosions in the occupied areas.

Russia fires rockets at Donbass in the Ukraine war

+++ 8.10 a.m .:

As the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces announced on Telegram, the army has been able to fend off several Russian attacks in the Donbass.

Meanwhile, the Russian military fired several rockets at Ukraine, it said.

According to Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region, several civilians were injured in Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Kostyantynivka.

News on the Ukraine war: USA warns Iran – and announces new sanctions

+++ 06.35 a.m .:

The USA and Great Britain have unanimously warned of new arms deliveries from Iran to Russia.

In addition to ballistic missiles, Russia is also to receive drones from Iran – the energy infrastructure in Ukraine was recently attacked and severely damaged with drones of this type.

Because of this damage, the Ukrainian people must already be prepared for a harsh winter with many power cuts.

Washington immediately announced new sanctions against Moscow.

The US government warns of increasing Iranian support for the Russian military and is therefore announcing new sanctions.

"We are imposing costs on the actors involved in the transfer of Iranian drones to Russia for use in Ukraine," National Security Council communications director John Kirby said on Friday (December 9, local time).

According to the US government, the sanctions are aimed at the Russian air and space forces, a state center for unmanned aviation and the command of military transport aviation.

News in the Ukraine war: Bakhmut is "a burnt ruin"

+++ 10.40 p.m .:

With its invasion of Ukraine, according to Volodymyr Selenskyj, the Russian army brought “hell under the Russian flag” to the country.

Especially in the eastern front areas of the Donbass, the situation is "very difficult," said Zelenskyy in his daily video address on Friday evening.

He named the focal points as Bakhmut, Soledar or Kremnina.

"There hasn't been any living space in these areas for a long time that hasn't been damaged by shells."

The city of Bakhmut was completely destroyed by the occupying forces.

The Russian army "turned it into a burnt ruin," said Zelenskyy.

His adviser Mykhailo Podoliak had previously described the situation around Bakhmut from the Ukrainian point of view as "hell on earth".

Away from what is happening at the front, Ukraine is continuing to work on holding Russia legally accountable for the invasion and its consequences.

"We feel supported by states as well as by international organizations and human rights institutions," Zelenskyj said.

Great Britain had offered a leading role in efforts to create a special court modeled on the Nuremberg tribunal.

News from the Ukraine war: Lukashenko justifies Russia's attack

+++ 3.55 p.m .:

Alexander Lukashenko, the self-proclaimed President of Belarus, claims that the West wants to start a war in Donbass after the 2020 protests in Belarus.

This is reported by the Kremlin-affiliated news agency

.

"They [Western countries] have been preparing for it [for a war]." After the 2020 uprising in Belarus, the plan was for NATO troops to take power in Belarus and for the West to start a war with Russia from the Donbass initiated.

"Russia acted pre-emptively," said Lukashenko.

Ukraine demands more help from the West - Russia desperate?

First report from Wednesday, December 7th:

Kiev/Moscow – Poland now wants to accept the Patriot air defense systems offered by Germany to defend its airspace.

Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak wrote on Twitter on Tuesday (December 6) that work is being done to station the Patriots on Polish territory and to place them under the Polish command system.

However, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) had insisted that the German air defense systems should be treated as part of the integrated NATO air defense system.

There was initially no question of placing them under a Polish command.

After the heavy Russian rocket attacks on Ukraine's energy supply, the EU border protection agency Frontex has so far not registered any significant change in border traffic.

Last week, 229,542 people entered an EU country from Ukraine, Frontex announced on Tuesday via Twitter.

In the same period, 208,988 people crossed the border of an EU country towards Ukraine.

Comparative figures from the previous weeks were initially not immediately available.

(editorial with agencies)