Kiev, Dec 25, (dpa/GNA) – At least 70 Russian officers were injured, after an attack on a Russian command post in the Kherson region in the south of the country, according to the Ukrainian armed forces.
It was unclear how many had died, but at least 70 officers were injured after Kiev’s forces, attacked during a meeting in the village of Zabaryne, the army said on Sunday.
Ukrainian fighters have attacked Russian command centres and command posts repeatedly, since the start of the invasion, locating them by monitoring radio traffic or the mobile phone network. Several senior Russian officers have died in similar attacks.
Meanwhile, after an attack on the city of Kherson, the capital of the Ukrainian province of the same name, the death toll rose to 16, with a further 64 injured, the Ukrainian military governor of the region reported earlier, as air raid sirens sounded on Christmas Day.
Among the dead were three men, who had died while clearing mines, Yaroslav Yanushevych said on Telegram. Ukraine has accused Russia of bombarding the city, which Russia seized soon after invading on February 24.
On Saturday, Yanushevych put the death toll at 10, with 55 injured. President Volodymyr Zelensky, published photos of lifeless bodies in the centre of the city.
Zelensky condemned the attack as another Russian crime, saying there were no military targets in the area. “This is killing for the sake of intimidation and pleasure,” Zelensky said. “The world needs to see what absolute evil we are fighting.”
Russia announced in the autumn that it was annexing the region, before Ukrainian forces retook the city, as Russian troops retreated to the other side of the Dnipro river. From there, they have bombarded the city with artillery, according to Ukrainian sources.
Volodymyr Saldo, the governor of the region appointed by Russia, rejected the Ukrainian allegations, insisting that it was Ukrainian forces who were bombarding the city and accusing them of terrorism.
“This is repulsive provocation with the apparent aim of attributing blame to the Russian forces,” he said, insisting that the nature of the destruction indicated artillery fire from Ukrainian-held territory to the north, and north-west of the city.
The Kremlin insists that the entire Kherson region is Russian territory, and will not be surrendered.
Meanwhile as Moscow’s forces seek to overpower the southern region, they are also battling for control of eastern Ukraine, with heavy clashes over the town of Bakhmut.
However, Kiev’s fighters inflicted “heavy losses” on the invaders there, according to a Ukrainian military spokesperson.
At least 50 Russian soldiers have been killed, and another 80 wounded since Saturday alone, according to Serhii Chervatko, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Army Group East. The figures could not be independently verified.
Bakhmut is seen as a critical point along the front in eastern Ukraine, as any breakthrough here would allow Russian troops to advance deep behind Ukrainian lines. Ukrainian fighters have transformed the town into a fortress, in their attempts to defend it.
The head of administration of the Luhansk region, Serhii Haidai, said alongside regular Russian troops, Wagner mercenaries and Chechen fighters sent by the republic’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov, had failed in their attacks on Bakhmut.
“They want to show the bunker grandpa [Russian President Vladimir Putin] what they can do,” he said on Telegram. “But so far they are only losing thousands of soldiers who will remain there forever.”
Even as Moscow’s war efforts falter, Putin insisted that Russia is on the right course in the conflict.
“I believe that we are moving in the right direction. We are protecting our national interests, the interests of our citizens, of our people,” he said in an interview broadcast by state television.
Putin stressed that Russia was prepared to negotiate an end to the conflict. “We are ready to agree with all those involved in the process on any acceptable solutions, but that is their business. It is not we who reject negotiations, but they.”
Responding to a question whether a dangerous point had been reached in the conflict, Putin said he had no other choice, as Russia had striven for a peaceful solution in 2014 when it annexed Crimea.
He accused Western powers of backing the toppling of Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian president at the time.
GNA