MOSCOW (Reuters) – Four civilians died as a result of Ukrainian shelling on a village just over the border in Russia’s Bryansk region, a local governor said.
“Four civilians have been killed,” Governor Alexander Bogomaz said on the Telegram messaging app. Two other citizens were being treated in hospital, Bogomaz said.
Bogomaz earlier said that one residential building had been completely destroyed and two other houses partially destroyed.
Bogomaz blamed the incident on “Ukrainian nationalists”. Ukraine almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia and on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine.
“Work is continuing at the site of the incident to remove rubble and clear the area,” Bogomaz said. “A state of emergency has been introduced in the village.”
Russia’s Bryansk region borders Ukraine. The village of Suzemka, where the incident occurred, is around 10 kms (6.2 miles) from the border.
Meanwhile, a military spokesperson said that Ukraine remains in control of a key supply route into Bakhmut, as the head of Russia’s Wagner Group threatened to withdraw some of his troops from the eastern city if Moscow did not send more ammunition.
Russian forces have been trying for 10 months to punch their way into the shattered remains of what was once a city of 70,000. Kyiv has pledged to defend Bakhmut, which Russia sees as a stepping stone to attacking other cities.
“For several weeks, the Russians have been talking about seizing the ‘road of life,’ as well as about constant fire control over it,” Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for Ukrainian troops in the east, said in an interview with local news website Dzerkalo Tyzhnia.
“Yes, it is really difficult there ... (but) the defense forces have not allowed the Russians to ‘cut off’ our logistics.”
Ukraine’s top military command said in its daily update on Sunday that its forces had repelled 58 Russian attacks over the past day along the part of frontline stretching from Bakhmut through Avdiivka and on to Maryinka further south in the Donetsk region.
If Bakhmut fell, Chasiv Yar would probably be next to come under Russian attack according to military analysts, though it is on higher ground and Ukrainian forces are believed to have built defensive fortifications nearby.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Russia’s Wagner Group said that his forces have advanced some 100 to 150 meters (109 to 164 yards) in Bakhmut, leaving just under 3 square km of the city in Ukrainian hands.
But he said he lost 94 troops.
“It would have had been five times fewer if we had more ammunition,” Prigozhin said in an audio statement published on the Telegram messaging app of his press service.