MOSCOW: The Russian army is continuing its attacks on a “broad front” in Ukraine, according to the Defence Ministry in Moscow, as Russian troops appeared to close in on the capital Kyiv.
Outside Kyiv, an airbase in Vasylkiv and a Ukrainian military intelligence reconnaissance centre in Brovary were taken out of action, ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Saturday.
According to British intelligence, a large Russian military column has partially dispersed north of Kyiv and is “likely to support a Russian attempt to encircle the city.”
However, the British Ministry of Defence wrote on Twitter, the move could also be “an attempt by Russia to reduce its vulnerability to Ukrainian counter-attacks, which have taken a significant toll on Russian forces.”
The bulk of Russian ground forces were now about 25 km from the centre of the city, the ministry said.
Several Ukrainian cities, including the encircled Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mariupol continued to suffer heavy Russian shelling.
Two people were injured in renewed fighting and shelling on Friday in the southern region of Mykolaiv, Governor Vitaly Kim said.
“The occupying forces shelled hospitals and boarding schools at night with indiscriminate, chaotic fire’’, Kim said.
He added the attackers had changed tactics and were hiding in villages among civilian buildings. “Now there are no more rules, we will crack down on them’’, the governor said.
The capture of Mykolaiv by Russian troops would give Russian forces a strategic position on the land route to the important south-western port city of Odessa, which could be cut off from the rest of the country.
In the separatist Luhansk region, areas that remained under the control of Kiev faced constant shelling and dozens of civilians were injured or killed.
According to Ukrainian figures, 70 per cent of the Luhansk region is under separatist control. At the beginning of the war on February 24, the separatists had about 30 per cent.— dpa
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