Russian shelling killed 11 people in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, Governor Valentyn Reznychenko said yesterday, as Britain said Russia had “almost certainly” established a major new ground force to support its war.
The new Russian force, called the 3rd Army Corps, is based in the city of Mulino, east of Russia’s capital, Moscow, the British Ministry of Defence said in a daily intelligence bulletin.
The ministry added that Russian commanders were facing “competing operational priorities” of reinforcing their offensive in the Donbas region in the east, as well as strengthening defenses against Ukrainian counterattacks in the south.
Photo: EPA-EFE
After failing to capture Kyiv early in the war, Russian forces have focused on the east and south, where pro-Moscow separatists have controlled territory since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.
A senior Ukrainian official suggested a series of explosions at a Russian air base in Crimea on Tuesday could have been the work of partisan saboteurs, as Ukraine denied responsibility for the incident deep in Russian-occupied territory.
Huge plumes of smoke could be seen in videos posted on social media from Crimea, a holiday destination for many Russians. Russia used Crimea as one of the launch pads for its Feb. 24 invasion.
Russia said the explosions, at least 12 according to witnesses, were detonations of stored ammunition, not the result of an attack.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy did not directly mention the blasts in his daily video address on Tuesday, but said it was right that people were focusing on Crimea.
“We will never give it up... The Black Sea region cannot be safe while Crimea is occupied,” he said, repeating his government’s position that Crimea would have to be returned to Ukraine.
Ukraine’s general staff reported widespread Russian shelling across several regions yesterday.
Petro Kotin, head of Ukraine’s state nuclear power company Energoatom, warned of the “very high” risk of shelling at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the Russian-occupied south and said it was vital Kyiv regained control of the facility in time for winter.
Shelling last week by Russian forces had damaged three lines that connect the plant to the Ukrainian grid, he said.
Russia wanted to connect the facility to its grid, Kotin said.
“The risk is very high” of shelling hitting containers storing radioactive material, he said.
Both Ukraine and Russia have said they want technicians from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to visit Zaporizhzhia, the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe.
Russia has asked for IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi to brief the UN Security Council today on Russia’s accusation of attacks by “the Ukrainian armed forces on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and their potential catastrophic consequences,” diplomats said.
Ukraine has denied the Russian assertion that its forces attacked the plant.
In the northern town of Bucha, 15 bodies were buried on Tuesday after they were found four months after Russian forces withdrew from the area.
“All the people who were shot and exhumed from a mass grave have torture marks,” Bucha Deputy Mayor Mykhailyna Skoryk told reporters.
Ukraine and its allies accuse Russian forces of committing atrocities in Bucha, a satellite town of Kyiv, after beginning its invasion on Feb. 24.
Russia denied the accusation and denies targeting civilians in what it calls its “special military operation.”
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