Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the southern region of Kherson, extending his visit to the country’s frontline after a trip to Bakhmut the day before. More than 50 villages in Kherson were “almost completely destroyed”, he said in his evening speech, adding that in some places 90% of the buildings were in ruins.
Also on Thursday, European Union leaders reiterated their economic and military support for Ukraine, promising to jointly deliver 1 million artillery shells over the next year. They said they would also provide missiles, at kyiv’s request. EU member states have made available about $73 billion to Ukraine since the start of the war, the bloc said. Slovakia, meanwhile, has delivered four of the 13 MiG-29 fighter jets promised to Ukraine, its defense minister said.
Here is the latest news on the war and its ripple effects around the world.
Between Avdiivka and Bakhmut, Ukrainian forces fight Russia on difficult ground: For Ukrainian soldiers outside the town of Niu-York in the eastern region of Donetsk, shelling and destruction have been a part of life since 2014, when Russian forces and their separatist proxies began to attack seize the territory of Donbass. Now they are caught between two raging battles: one to the northeast at Bakhmut and another to the southwest at Avdiivka, report Alex Horton and Anastacia Galouchka.
A breakout in these areas, leaders said, would strangle supply routes in the region and risk encircling units here. In this fierce war, with advances in feet not miles, the joining of Russian troops, north and south, in a unified line of attack pushing west would be a major triumph and further the President’s objective. Vladimir Putin to seize all of the Donetsk region, as well as three others: Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
