Ukraine’s Donetsk Region Pounded by Advancing Russian Forces

Heavy Russian shelling and attempts to advance on several towns in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk, which has recently become a key focus of the near six-month war, were reported by Ukrainian defense forces that had allegedly repelled many of the attacks.

Though Ukrainian troops are reportedly steadily capturing territory, particularly in the Kherson region, which is mainly controlled by Russian forces, Russian shelling was reported in more than a dozen towns on the southern front, as per the report of the General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces.

One base allegedly used by the Wagner military contractors in the Russian-occupied town of Popasna was hit by artillery or rocket fire at the weekend, social media videos geolocated at the city show, with pro-Russian accounts on Telegram associated with the Wagner group showing extensive damage, noting there had also been casualties.

The information was also confirmed by Serhiy Hayday, the Ukrainian official who heads the Luhansk region military administration

Russia-sponsored private military contractors are playing an active role in Donbas fighting, often deployed as infantry to advance on towns Ukrainian forces have withdrawn from.

Meanwhile, amid fears of a catastrophe, much of the attention has been focused on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine. Dmytro Orlov, the mayor of Energodar where Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant occupied by Russian troops is located, has warned that the risk of disaster at is increasing every day.

Calling what is happening there outright nuclear terrorism, Orlov stressed that the situation created since last week when the facility came under repeated and still ongoing fire Kyiv and Moscow are trading blame for, can end unpredictably at any moment.

Russian soldiers have seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, in the opening days of Ukraine’s invasion and have left the facility on the front line ever since.

The UK’s defense ministry, which maps Russian attacks and troop locations in Ukraine, has published its latest map indicating that Russian forces are striving to make gains in northeastern Kharkiv and eastern Donbas regions.

In a bid to reclaim territory captured by Russia earlier in the war, Ukrainian troops are staging counterattacks in Ukraine’s south.