Fears of new front as battles rage on
ONE of Vladimir Putin’s top generals has said his country aims to capture not just eastern Ukraine but all of the south, giving it a land route to the pro-Russian breakaway republic of Transnistria.
Maj Gen Rustam Minnekayev’s comments came as Ukraine reported Russian troops massing in Transnistria and preparing to carry out border “provocations”.
Kyiv fears 1,300 fighters in the Moldovan breakaway region which borders Ukraine could open another front in the war.
Putin has moved some troops from Mariupol – where defenders are still holding out in the Azovstal steel plant – to new positions in the east.
They are reported to have taken 40 villages but Ukrainian leader Volodymr Zelensky says these and other gains are “only temporary”. In Lyman, north east of Slovyansk, Russian artillery and rockets hit a hospital overnight. Mariupol’s mayor says 100,000 people are still stuck in the shattered city. Yesterday a visiting photographer told of bodies being “chucked” into bomb craters. Pictures also showed Chechen special forces near the Azovstal works. Meanwhile the World Bank has estimated war damage has reached £46billion. The UK will begin to reopen its embassy in Kyiv from next week, Boris Johnson announced yesterday. Diplomats from other European countries have also started to return.