According to Kyiv estimates, the death toll for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces in the Ukraine war has risen to 18,300.
Since Putin’s invasion on February 24, Russia has only admitted 1,351 of its men have perished fighting in Ukraine, a fraction of the total reported by Ukraine’s armed forces.
Ukrainian forces have also retaken some towns in the northern Chernihiv region, while Russian forces no longer occupy any territories in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, dealing another blow to Putin’s conflict.
Ukrainian soldiers also blitzed a Russian military convoy, which seemed to be a rocket before bursting into flames, in an attempt to disrupt fuel and supply deliveries to Putin’s frontline troops.
However, Russian shelling of civilian areas has persisted, with eight people dead and 34 injured in the southern Ukrainian cities of Mykolaiv and Ochakiv on Sunday, according to prosecutors in Kyiv.
‘The cities of Ochakiv and Mykolaiv were attacked by Russian forces. Residents’ homes, vehicles, and civilian infrastructure were damaged by shelling,’ the Ukrainian prosecutor general stated in a statement today.
‘Seven people of Ochakiv were murdered and another 20 were injured as a result of enemy shelling. In the city of Mykolaiv, one person was killed and 14 others were injured, including a child,’ the statement continued.
Meanwhile, Russian soldiers and mercenaries from the notorious Wagner Group, often known as ‘Putin’s private army,’ are being deployed in eastern Ukraine, according to British intelligence sources.
Across the country, Ukrainian forces are prepared for the arrival of about 60,000 Russian reservists, according to the country’s general staff.
‘Russian forces are consolidating and reorganizing as they redirect their attack into the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine,’ the British Ministry of Defence said today in an intelligence briefing.
Russian forces, as well as mercenaries from the Wagner private military group, are being transported into the area, according to the report. Moscow claims to be concentrating its offensive efforts in the Donbass region, where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for years.
Meanwhile, Russian shelling struck Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine on Sunday, killing at least seven people and injuring 34 others, including three children, according to local authorities.
Missiles also hit near the southern port of Odesa, with Russia claiming to have destroyed a Ukrainian military oil refinery. ‘Critical infrastructural facilities’ were hit, according to the Odesa city council.
Russia is gearing up forces to break through Ukrainian defenses, according to Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of the eastern Luhansk area.
‘I’m advising residents to leave.’ In comments shown on Ukrainian television, he declared, “The enemy will not stop; it will destroy everything in its path.”
Overnight, the United Kingdom reported that Russia was still attempting to conquer Mariupol, Ukraine’s southern port city, which has been the scene of weeks of violent warfare.
‘The city continues to be subjected to severe, indiscriminate bombardment, but Ukrainian Forces maintain a firm resistance, holding control in central areas,’ according to intelligence chiefs.
‘Mariupol is very probably a main aim of the Russian invasion,’ according to the Ministry of Defense, ‘since it will ensure a land passage from Russia to the occupied region of Crimea,’ which Moscow annexed in 2014.