Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko reported that Russian attacks on Ukraine have increased, with 118 towns and villages bombed in 24 hours, more than on any other day this year. Attacks took place in ten of Ukraine’s 27 regions. Russia has focused its military efforts on the strategically important town of Avdiivka in the eastern Donetsk region, on Thursday, the 2nd of November, reports the British media outlet BBC.
Local leader Vitaly Barabash has said the situation in Avdiivka is dire, noting that the town is being “erased, shattered”, with more than 40 attacks in one day. He reported that two civilians had died and warned that the Russian offensive seemed to be intensifying and that forces were being reinforced in the region, possibly with the aim of encircling and capturing the city.
Twenty attacks were repelled in the Avdiivka region on Tuesday alone,
the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said.
Russia has stepped up attacks on various fronts, including Kupyansk in Kharkiv region, preventing Ukrainian forces from regaining control of the area around Bakhmut. In addition, attacks took place outside the front line in Nikopol, where residential buildings, shops and a pharmacy were bombed.
There was also an incident in Kremenchuk, where a Russian drone set fire to a disused oil refinery. The Poltava region oil refinery has been the target of several Russian attacks and new attacks were reported in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
❗️Overnight, the oil refinery in #Kremenchuk, #Poltava region, came under drone attack, as reported by the head of the Regional Military Administration, Pronin.
“There are no reported casualties at this time. The facility is not operational,” Pronin stated.
?: Poltava RMA pic.twitter.com/s2kLtRguei
— KyivPost (@KyivPost) November 1, 2023
The Kremenchuk refinery was the largest oil refinery in Ukraine until Russian attacks shut it down a few weeks after the invasion.
Ukraine’s counter-offensive in the south and east aimed at retaking territory from Russian forces has not been very successful, raising concerns about Western war fatigue.
According to the BBC, Ukraine’s top military commander, Zaluzhny, told the Economist that the war was entering a static, “positional” phase, which could fuel Moscow’s “efforts to rebuild its military forces”. He stressed that Russia still retains the upper hand in terms of weapons, equipment, missiles, and ammunition, calling on Ukraine’s allies to provide critical military assets.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also acknowledged the slow progress,
calling on Kyiv’s allies to urgently provide military assistance and to remain united.
In his address on Tuesday, Zelensky said that “we live in a world that gets used to success too quickly”. However, he praised the military successes achieved over the Black Sea.
Recent Ukrainian strikes have targeted the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s headquarters, leading to the evacuation of most of its ships from occupied Crimea.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Wednesday that Ukraine is losing the war even though NATO is sending new weapons. He claimed that Ukraine was suffering heavy losses in its attempts to advance into the Russian-held regions of Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Donetsk, and pointed to an “increase in demoralisation of personnel”.
Shoigu also stressed that Russian troops are advancing, but he did not provide any evidence to support these claims.
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