ODESA, Ukraine/KYIV, July 30 (Reuters) – The Ukrainian navy mentioned on Saturday it had killed scores of Russian troopers and destroyed two ammunition dumps in fighting in the Kherson area, the main focus of Kyiv’s counter-offensive in the south and a key hyperlink in Moscow’s provide traces.
Rail site visitors to Kherson over the Dnipro River had been lower, the navy’s southern command mentioned, probably additional isolating Russian forces west of the river from provides in occupied Crimea and the east.
Ukraine has used Western-supplied long-range missile techniques to badly injury three bridges throughout the Dnipro in current weeks, slicing off Kherson metropolis and – in the evaluation of British defence officers – leaving Russia’s forty ninth Army stationed on the west financial institution of the river extremely weak.
Register now for FREE limitless entry to Reuters.com
“As a result of fire establishing control over the main transport links in occupied territory, it has been established that traffic over the rail bridge crossing the Dnipro is not possible,” Ukraine’s southern command mentioned in an announcement.
It mentioned greater than 100 Russian troopers and 7 tanks had been destroyed in fighting on Friday in the Kherson area, the primary main city captured by the Russians following their Feb. 24 invasion.
The first deputy head of the Kherson regional council, Yuri Sobolevsky, advised residents to remain from away from Russian ammunition dumps.
“The Ukrainian army is pouring it on against the Russians and this is only the beginning,” he wrote on Telegram.
The pro-Ukrainian governor of Kherson area, Dmytro Butriy, mentioned Berislav district was notably arduous hit. Berislav is throughout the river northwest of the Kakhovka hydroelectric powerplant.
“In some villages, not a single home has been left intact, all infrastructure has been destroyed, people are living in cellars,” he wrote on the Telegram app.
Reuters was unable to independently confirm the experiences and officers from the Russian-appointed administration working the Kherson area earlier this week rejected Western and Ukrainian assessments of the scenario.
PRISON EXPLOSION
The two sides additionally traded accusations on Friday over a missile strike or explosion which appeared to have killed dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of warfare in jap Donetsk province.
Forty prisoners had been killed and 75 wounded on the jail in the frontline city of Olenivka held by Moscow-backed separatists, Russia’s defence ministry mentioned. Some of the deaths had been confirmed by Reuters journalists on the jail.
A spokesperson for the separatists put the dying toll at 53 and accused Kyiv of focusing on the jail with U.S.-made HIMARS rockets.
Ukraine’s armed forces denied duty, saying Russian artillery had focused the jail to cover the mistreatment of these held there. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba mentioned Russia had dedicated a warfare crime and known as for worldwide condemnation.
Reuters couldn’t instantly confirm the differing variations of occasions.
Reuters TV confirmed the stays of a cavernous burned-out constructing stuffed with steel beds, some with charred our bodies mendacity on them whereas different our bodies had been lined up on navy stretchers or on the bottom exterior.
Shell fragments had been laid out on a blue steel bench. It was not instantly potential to detect any figuring out markings and it was not clear the place the fragments had been collected.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) mentioned it’s searching for entry to the positioning and has supplied to assist evacuate the wounded.
Ukraine has accused Russia of atrocities and brutality towards civilians since its invasion and mentioned it has recognized greater than 10,000 potential warfare crimes. Russia denies focusing on civilians.
FOOD DIPLOMACY
A U.N.-brokered deal to restart transport grain from Ukraine and ease a worldwide meals disaster was mentioned by the highest diplomats of the United States and Russia on Friday in their first cellphone name since earlier than Russia’s invasion of its neighbour started on Feb. 24.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov advised U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Washington was not residing as much as guarantees concerning the exemption of meals from sanctions, the overseas ministry mentioned. learn extra
A Russian overseas ministry account of the cellphone name cited Lavrov as telling Blinken that Russia would obtain all of the targets of its “special military operation”, and mentioned Western arms provides to Ukraine would solely drag out the battle.
Blinken warned Lavrov about any Russian territorial claims throughout its warfare in Ukraine.
“The world will not recognise annexations. We will impose additional significant costs on Russia if it moves forward with its plans,” he mentioned.
Register now for FREE limitless entry to Reuters.com
Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Stephen Coates; Editing by Lincoln Feast.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
