Aug 10 (Reuters) – Russian shelling killed 11 people in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, Governor Valentyn Reznychenko said on Wednesday, as Britain said Russia had “almost certainly” established a major new land force to support his war.
The new Russian force, called 3rd Army Corps, is based in the town of Mulino, east of the Russian capital, Moscow, the British Ministry of Defense said in a daily intelligence bulletin.
The ministry also said Russian commanders faced “competing operational priorities” of bolstering their offensive in the Donbass region in the east, as well as bolstering defenses against Ukrainian counterattacks in the south.
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After failing to capture the Ukrainian capital of 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 has suggested that a series of explosions at a Russian airbase in Crimea on Tuesday may have been the work of partisan saboteurs, as Ukraine has denied responsibility for the incident deep in Russian-occupied territory. Russia.
Huge plumes of smoke could be seen in videos posted on social media from Crimea, a vacation destination for many Russians. Russia used Crimea as one of the launching pads for its February 24 invasion.
Russia said the explosions, at least 12 according to witnesses, were detonations of stored munitions, not the result of an attack.
Zelenskiy did not directly mention the explosions in his daily video address on Tuesday, but said it was right for people to focus on Crimea.
“We will never give up…the Black Sea region cannot be safe as long as Crimea is occupied,” he said, reiterating his government’s position that Crimea should be returned to Ukraine.
HIGH RISK
The Ukrainian General Staff on Wednesday reported widespread Russian shelling in several regions.
The head of Ukraine’s nuclear energy company warned of the “very high” risk of a bombing of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the Russian-occupied south and said it was vital that Kyiv regain control of installation in time for winter.
Shelling last week by Russian forces damaged three lines that connect the plant to the Ukrainian grid, he said. Russia wanted to connect the facility to its network, Kotin said.
“The risk is very high” that shelling will hit containers storing radioactive materials, he said.
Ukraine and Russia have said they want technicians from the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to visit Zaporizhzhia, the largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Europe.
Russia has asked IAEA chief Rafael Grossi to inform the UN Security Council on Thursday of the Russian accusation of attacks by “Ukrainian armed forces against the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and their consequences potential disasters,” diplomats said.
Ukraine has denied the Russian claim that its forces attacked the factory.
MASS BURIALS
In the northern town of Bucha, 15 bodies were buried on Tuesday after being found four months after Russian forces withdrew from the area.
“All the people who were shot and exhumed from a mass grave bear the marks of torture,” Bucha deputy mayor Mykhailyna Skoryk told reporters.
Ukraine and its allies accuse Russian forces of committing atrocities in Bucha, a satellite town of the capital Kyiv, after they began their invasion on February 24.
Russia has denied the accusation and denies targeting civilians in what it calls its “special military operation” in its southern neighbor. Read more
Ukraine and its allies say Russia is responsible for an unprovoked imperial-style war of aggression that has sparked the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II.
Armed with arms from its Western allies, Ukraine is relying on sophisticated rocket and artillery systems to degrade Russian supply lines and logistics.
The US State Department has approved $89 million in aid to help Ukraine equip and train 100 teams to clear landmines and unexploded ordnance for one year.
Ukraine’s president called on the West to impose a blanket travel ban on Russians, an idea that found support among some EU member states but angered Russia, which dismissed it as irrational . Read more
President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed documents of US support for Finland and Sweden joining NATO, the military alliance’s biggest expansion since the 1990s and sparked by the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Read more
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Reports from Reuters offices; Written by Michael Perry; Editing by Robert Birsel
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