From CNN’s Tim Lister and Olga Voitovych
Russian forces have stepped up their offensive in both the south and east of the country — but resistance has been able to push back in some locations, Ukrainian officials said Tuesday.
“Russian troops have launched an offensive in all directions,” said Alexei Arestovych, an advisor to President Volodymyr Zelensky, on Ukrainian television.
Russian forces are focusing particularly on the Kramatorsk and Sloviansk towns in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, and on Kryvyi Rih in the southern Kherson region, he said.
The Russians have held Kherson since the early days of the invasion, and have been trying to push northward from there.
Russia is also continuing to build up troops in the northeast, intended to partially blockade the heavily hit city of Kharkiv, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said on Tuesday.
It added that Russian forces had tried unsuccessfully to launch attacks elsewhere in the Donetsk region.
“Over the past 24 hours, six enemy attacks have been repulsed in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, four tanks, five artillery systems, thirteen units of armored vehicles, fifteen units of motor vehicles, two tankers and one anti-aircraft gun have been destroyed,” the General Staff said.
Russian troops are also conducting an offensive to the south, in the region of Zaporizhzhia, the General Staff said. Ukrainian forces have struck back, destroying a Russian ammunition depot, the military leadership said, claiming that some 70 Russian soldiers had been killed and that the Russians also suffered losses in two settlements south of Kryvyi Rih.
CNN cannot independently verify these figures.
In the same region, the Southern Command of the Ukrainian Infantry said Russian forces had again tried to advance toward the city of Mykolaiv with increased shelling and artillery — but two attacks “were repelled by our units, including the destruction of tanks and an APC (military vehicle),” it said. “The rest of the forces retreated under our fire to the previous positions.”