Russia Ukraine war live: Avdiivka fightback thwarted by Western weapon delays, military chief warns

Ukrainian forces are still in control of the town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine despite attempts by Russian troops to break through their defences, Commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Saturday.

Russia‘s RIA news agency on Friday cited an official as saying Russian forces had entered the suburbs of the town, which Moscow sees as an important staging point for Kyiv’s troops. Ukrainian military said the report was untrue. “Chasiv Yar remains under our control, and all enemy attempts to break through to the settlement have failed,” Syrskyi said on the Telegram messaging app on Saturday.

A rapid Russian advance on Chasiv Yar, a heavily fortified town with a pre-war population of 12,200 situated west of the ruined Russian-occupied city of Bakhmut, would be a grim setback for Kyiv.

Russian forces are inching forward in eastern Ukraine after capturing the bastion town of Avdiivka in February. Kyiv’s soldiers are trying to dig in, facing long-term shortages of artillery shells with U.S. aid stuck in Congress.

During his interview, the first with Western media since the fall of the city, Maksym Zhorin was blunt about the reality of the eastern frontline while Western weapons supplies are delayed or simply being withheld – and he was frank about the future of European security.

A US military package worth roughly $60 billion has been in limbo in Washington for seven months, victim to squabbling politicians, while European partners have failed to send more than half of the million artillery shells they promised to Kyiv by this year, unable to agree on how to finance their production.

Hours after Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg announced a long-term proposal for a €100 billion military package to Ukraine this week – a step in the right direction for Kyiv – Mr Zhorin said that the pledge will help but it is, like all Western aid, coming too late.

Thousands of people living in Russia’s Orenburg region have been forced to evacuate after severe flooding caused a dam to burst in the Ural river.

“Don’t wait for the situation to become threatening! Leave! You need to evacuate as quickly as possible,” the region’s mayor Sergei Salmin told residents, Reuters reported.

The situation in the city, about 1,500 km (930 miles) east of Moscow, is “critical” and some 300 houses have already been submerged, according to the mayor.

Speaking to The Independent from an undisclosed location in Donetsk, deputy commander of Ukraine’s 3rd Assault Brigade, Maksym Zhorin, issued a troubling warning to Kyiv’s Western partners.

The West, he said, must urgently prepare. “Create serious defence systems that could counteract Russia because it will undoubtedly open its mouth and try to swallow the rest of Europe,” he warned.

A Russian descent vehicle landed in Kazakhstan on Saturday, returning from the International Space station with astronauts from Russia, Belarus and the United States, live footage broadcast by Russia’s Roscosmos space agency showed.

Russian Oleg Novitsky and Belarusian Marina Vasilevskaya departed for the ISS last month on a Soyuz spacecraft. They returned to Earth on Saturday along with U.S. astronaut Loral O’Hara, who had been aboard the orbital station since September.

Russia fired five missiles on Ukraine’s southern city of Zaporizhzhia on Friday, killing at least four people, injuring 20 and damaging residential buildings and industrial facilities, the regional governor said.

Two journalists covering the aftermath of the strikes were among those wounded in the city, which is near the frontline in the war with Russian forces.

“What marks today’s strikes: first, there were two missile strikes, and then, about 40 minutes later, there were other strikes at the same place – just as rescuers, police started working,” Ivan Fedorov said on national TV.

The local prosecutor’s office said 20 people were wounded. They included a nine-year old boy. Four were in hospital in grave condition.

Fedorov said at least three apartment blocks, 10 private houses, shops and an unidentified industrial facility were damaged.

Emergency crews encountered the body of a victim lying next to a pool of blood. At least two cars in the street were engulfed in flames.

Images shared by Fedorov and the interior ministry, captured shattered windows of a cafe and a small shop.

Ukraine’s air force issued a ballistic missile raid alert for the region, part of which is occupied by Russia. Moscow has recently stepped up usage of ballistic missiles that are harder to intercept.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky inspected new fortifications for servicemen near the Belarusian border in the Chernihiv region, on the second anniversary of the Russian army fleeing the Chernihiv, Sumy and Kyiv regions.

He posted on social media: “The Chernihiv region, like all of our border areas, is subjected to constant Russian humiliation: airstrikes and terror.

“The border areas of the Chernihiv region are home to 15,000 people who are constantly subjected to strikes.

“Over the course of the past year, Russian terrorists fired 15,000 shells at them.

“They have no mercy. They try to get each person here and destroy all life.

“Everyone who defends our people in the Chernihiv region, our communities across Ukraine, and everyone in the world who supports Ukraine is a true defender of life. I am grateful to all such people.”

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has condemned a missile attack on its office building in Pokrovsk yesterday in Donetsk oblast.

The building was completely destroyed, injuring five, including MSF’s security staff, the humanitarian organisation said.

“This act of violence against a humanitarian organisation cannot be brushed off as just another casualty of war,” Vincenzo Porpiglia, emergency coordinator for MSF in Ukraine, said.

MSF said it has suspended its medical humanitarian activities in the Donetsk region temporarily.

“Attacks on any facility where humanitarian staff work not only jeopardise the safety of our staff, but also hinder the provision of lifesaving care to those in need,” Mr Porpiglia said.

Ukraine says Russia’s use of weapons with prohibited chemicals has become “systemic.”

The command of Ukraine’s Support Forces has recorded 371 uses of munitions containing prohibited chemicals over the past month, many of which included grenades delivered via drones.

The Support Forces’ report noted that Russian troops used weapons banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention 1412 times over the past year.

“Such actions on the part of the Russian Federation are taking on systemic pattern, and this tendency only grows,” the report noted.

Russia’s attack on Ukraine’s Kharkiv Oblast earlier today has left 6 dead and at least 10 injured, according to the city’s mayor Ihor Terekhov.

The attack began at midnight, destroying several buildings and dormitories, private vehicles, as well as local businesses, Kyiv Independent reported.

The city has been under a constant near-daily barrage of missile attacks from Russian troops since the invasion began in February 2022.

Government estimates suggest over 20,000 buildings have been destroyed in Kharkiv since Russia’s invasion began.