- According to the Ukrainian military, Russian forces have seized the villages of Vovche and Prokhres in Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast.
- After Russia claimed to have thwarted a drone attack, Ukrainian security services targeted an electricity substation in Russia’s Kursk region, causing a blackout.
- The villages are about 20 miles northwest of Avdiivka, which Russia captured in February.
Russian forces have seized two frontline villages in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, a Ukrainian army sergeant said on Monday, after a relentless offensive that is part of the Kremlin’s summer operation to overwhelm battlefield defenses in the region.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian General Staff said in a statement that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) had attacked several electricity substations in Russia’s Kursk region, causing a power outage. The claim came after Russia said it had thwarted a Ukrainian drone attack overnight.
“They attacked nonstop to capture Vovche and Proles,” Sergeant Major Oleh Chaus of Ukraine’s 47th Independent Mechanized Brigade told Radio Svoboda. “They sent in a lot of forces that had not been used before.”
Kiev forces face coordinated Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine, military officials say
The Russian Defense Ministry recently claimed it had captured the villages, but the Ukrainian General Staff has not made any official comment.
In this photo taken from a video released by the Russian Ministry of Defense on July 10, 2024, a Russian T-80 tank is seen firing towards Avdiivka from an undisclosed location. (Photo by Russian Defense Ministry Press Office, via Associated Press, File)
The villages are about 20 miles northwest of Avdiivka, a part of the Donetsk city that Russian forces captured in February after a drawn-out battle that was the Kremlin’s last major victory in a war now in its third year.
Backed by overwhelming superiority in soldiers and weaponry, Russia launched a fierce attack, forcing Ukrainian forces to repeatedly retreat from their defensive positions to avoid being captured or killed.
Oleksandr Shirsin, deputy battalion commander of the 47th Brigade, confirmed to local media that the villages had been captured. He blamed the failure on poor soldier training, poor officer competence, morale and a lack of weapons.
Ukrainian President Zelensky urges US to speed up arms shipments
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the situation in the Donetsk region as “extremely difficult” late on Sunday.
Russia’s strategy of attrition, using powerful glide bombs to shatter Ukrainian defenses before its infantry advances, is delivering incremental benefits to the Kremlin as it seeks a new major breakthrough.
Soldiers of the 15th Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine launched a Leleka reconnaissance drone to check the positions of Russian troops near the front line in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region on July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko)
Ukraine is heavily outnumbered by Russia’s much stronger military along a roughly 600-mile front.
Ukraine’s General Staff said Monday that Russian forces were intensifying a weeks-long push to break through Ukrainian defenses around the city of Pokrovsk, which had a population of about 60,000 before the war.
Russia has launched 52 attacks in the area in the past 24 hours, nearly double the number of daily attacks in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, Russian officials said on Monday that Russian air defenses had thwarted a nighttime barrage of 39 Ukrainian drones over five regions of the country. Ukraine claims its forces carried out the attacks in the Kursk region.
A statement from the Ukrainian General Staff said Russian air defense units were active and that explosions were reported near at least four electricity substations. Power outages were reported in the Ponirovsky, Solntsevsky and Kursky districts of Kursk Oblast after the attacks, the statement said.
Soldiers from the 15th Brigade of the Ukrainian National Guard use a Leleka reconnaissance drone in a wheat field to check the positions of Russian troops near the front line in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region on July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko)
The attack was carried out by the Security Service of the Special Operations Center of Ukraine and other units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“These facilities will ensure, inter alia, the ability of Russian Railways to transport weapons and military equipment to support the occupying forces,” the statement said.
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The Russian Defense Ministry said the drone was “intercepted and destroyed” in the Ukrainian border area and in the Leningrad region, about 430 miles north of the Ukrainian border. The drone’s debris damaged a power plant, a bridge and power lines, the ministry said.
Ukraine is using high tech in an ambitious drone strike campaign targeting critical infrastructure deep inside Russia, seeking to increase the cost of war for Moscow and cripple its military capabilities.
