Kyiv warns of ‘constant fire’ from Russian troops
Frontline town faces Moscow’s shelling while Ukrainian drone assault destroys six planes
Ukraine has warned a key frontline town was coming under “constant fire” from advancing Russian troops as Moscow said it had captured another small village.
Russia’s advances on the battlefield came as Ukraine said it had destroyed at least six military planes at a Russian airbase in one of its largest overnight drone attacks in weeks.
Buoyed by their advantage in manpower and arms, Russian forces are on the offensive.
The Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar in the eastern Donetsk region appears to be their next target.
“The town has become even more dangerous,” the head of the Chasiv Yar military administration, Sergiy Chaus, said during an interview in the nearby city of Kramatorsk.
“If before there were moments when you could hear silence in the town, now there is no silence … There is constant fire” he said.
Both Ukrainian and Russian military bloggers with links to the armed forces said Russian troops had reached the outskirts of the town.
Chaus declined to comment on those reports. He said there were around 770 people still living there. “There is not a single building left intact,” he said.
Chasiv Yar is an important logistics hub for Kyiv’s forces and sits a few kilometres west of Bakhmut, which was flattened by months of artillery fire before it was captured by Russia last May.
Russia recently secured its first territorial gains since seizing Bakhmut and is now trying to press onwards against Ukrainian units hobbled by delays in the supply of vital Western military aid.
Further to the south, Russia’s military claimed to have captured the small village of Vodiane on the outskirts of Donetsk city.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday said his forces had “managed to stabilise our positions” and had halted Russian advances, despite a “shortage of shells and a significant slowdown in supplies”.
Zelensky inspected military fortifications under construction in the northern region of Chernihiv, according to a video released by his office.
With its troops on the defensive, Kyiv has stepped up its aerial attacks on Russian territory, targeting both military sites and energy facilities in an attempt to knock out Russia’s fuel and equipment supplies for its invasion.
Kyiv fired more than 50 drones at Russian territory overnight, Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday, one of its largest attacks in weeks.
A security source in Kyiv said a drone strike on the Morozovsk airbase in Russia’s southern Rostov region had destroyed at least six Russian planes and “another eight were heavily damaged”.
“This is an important special operation that will significantly reduce the combat potential of the Russians,” the source said.
There was no immediate response from Moscow and AFP was unable to verify the claims.
Russia said 44 of the 53 drones Kyiv fired overnight targeted the southern Rostov region, which bordered Ukraine and was the location of several military sites, including the command headquarters for the invasion of Ukraine.
Rostov governor Vasily Golubev said investigators were injured while inspecting a drone that had been downed near the airbase.
“In the Morozovsk district, not far from the airfield, an explosive device in one of the downed drones detonated around noon, injuring eight people according to preliminary data,” he said in a post on Telegram.
He said earlier that the attack inflicted only “insignificant damage” to a power station and blew out windows in an apartment building.
Russia rarely comments on Ukrainian claims of successful strikes.
Both sides also reported shelling and injuries in frontline towns and villages.
The Medecins Sans Frontieres humanitarian organisation said a Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian-held town of Pokrovsk at 3am had “completely destroyed” its office in the town.
In a post on X, MSF said it “condemns this attack on the office, which supports its emergency medical humanitarian assistance”.
Now there is no silence … There is constant fire SERGIY CHAUS, HEAD, CHASIV YAR MILITARY ADMINISTRATION