KYIV/LVIV (AP/Reuters) –
Russian forces continued to shell Ukrainian cities amid a grinding push to seize more land in the east of the country, with Ukrainian officials saying that Moscow is having trouble launching its much-anticipated large-scale offensive there.
One person was killed and one more was wounded on Sunday morning by the shelling of Nikopol, a city in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, Gov. Serhii Lysak reported. The shelling damaged four residential buildings, a vocational school and a water treatment facility.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, one person was wounded after three Russian S-300 missiles hit infrastructure facilities overnight, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said.
The attacks come as Russian forces push to take over more land in the eastern industrial heartland of Donbas, comprised of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Ukrainian and Western officials have warned that Russia could launch a new, broad offensive there to try to turn the tide of the conflict as the war approaches the one-year mark.
Earlier this week the owner of the Russian Wagner Group private military contractor actively involved in the fighting in Ukraine said that the war could drag on for years.
Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video interview released late Friday that it could take 18 months to two years for Russia to fully secure control of Donbas. He added that the war could go on for three years if Moscow decides to capture broader territories east of the Dnieper River.
The statement from Prigozhin, a millionaire who has close links to Russian President Vladimir Putin, marked a recognition of the difficulties that the Kremlin has faced in the campaign.
On Sunday, Prigozhin said that Wagner fighters have taken over the Krasna Hora settlement north of Bakhmut, a strategic city at the epicenter of the fighting in recent months.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s top military commander on Saturday said the country’s forces were holding defense along the frontline in Donetsk, including of the besieged town of Bakhmut, as the fiercest battles raged in the cities of Vuhledar and Maryinka.
Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, said Russia carries out some 50 attacks daily in Donetsk, a region in Ukraine’s southeast that Moscow has been trying to occupy fully.
“Fierce fighting continues in the area of Vuhledar and Maryinka,” Zaluzhnyi said in a Telegram message after a call with US General Mark Milley.
“We reliably hold the defense. In some areas of the front we have managed to regain previously lost positions and gained a foothold.”
Furthermore, Ukraine and U.S. military chiefs discussed the latest developments in the West’s proxy war against Russia and weapons “priorities” for Kiev ahead of the next western allies’ meeting in Brussels.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov discussed the importance of delivering new lethal weapons, including air defense and artillery, as quickly as possible, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, said in a statement on Saturday.
After securing a promise of scores of modern battle tanks from the U.S., the UK, and Germany, President Volodymyr Zelensky has been urging allies to send fighter aircraft. The request has been refused till now.
The development comes as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group is set to meet on Tuesday at the NATO headquarters following upon a Jan. 20 conference at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany that was key for the decisions to send battle tanks to Kiev. The group has already provided huge shipments of weapons and munitions to the Kiev forces fighting Russia.