War between Ukraine and Russia: Latest news live | Zelenski, on his return to kyiv after visiting the US: “Already in my office. We are working for victory.”

Russia tries to advance in the east and entrenches itself in Crimea

Russian troops continued this Friday trying to break through the Ukrainian lines in the Donetsk region, without success according to the Ukrainian military command, which maintains that Russia is preparing to defend the annexed Crimean peninsula. The largest number of attacks by Russian forces was recorded in the Donetsk region, where Ukrainian troops repulsed incursions along with a dozen towns and cities, including Bakhmut, an important communications junction, the General Staff of Ukraine reported in a statement. part posted on Facebook.

According to the Ukrainian command, about thirty towns in that region of eastern Ukraine were subjected to artillery fire and tank shelling. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) He pointed out in his latest daily report that the private Russian military company Wagner Group, owned by the oligarch Yevgeny Prigozin, is likely to intensify its operations in the Bakhmut area to provide success that has eluded the Russian Army in that area. In the opinion of ISW analysts, Prigozhin, who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, is trying to expand his role in the contest to achieve his own political goals.

Although the eastern regions of Ukraine are the main scene of military actions, Russia is taking measures to prevent a Ukrainian offensive on the southern front, where last November its troops withdrew from the city of Kherson, the only regional capital it has managed to control. from the start of the campaign. “On the territory of the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea, enemy units are carrying out engineering work for defensive positions along the Krasnoperekopsk-Dzhankoy highway,” the Ukrainian General Staff said. The highway begins in the city of Kransnoperkopsk, it is located on the isthmus of the Crimean peninsula and from there it extends 61 kilometers to Dzhankoy, inside that territory annexed by Russia in 2014, and is key in the hypothetical case that troops break in the. And it is that the spirits of the kyiv authorities are on the rise, especially after the surprise visit of the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, to Washington, where he had a triumphant reception and his American counterpart, Joe Biden, announced the shipment of anti-aircraft missile systems Patriot to Ukraine, which sued them long ago. (Efe)