The Russian-held region is being attacked by Ukrainian troops as part of a counter-offensive after it was seized by Vladimir Putin’s forces in the early stages of the war. As part of the offensive, the Antonivsky Bridge was put out of action following long-range rocket attacks a few weeks ago. Now a structure at the dam in Nova Kakhovka cannot be used after attacks by Ukrainian troops. “The Russians no longer have any possibility to fully surrender their equipment,” wrote Serhii Khlan, a deputy in the Kherson regional council, on Facebook. This claim has not been independently verified. In other developments, police in Ukraine are investigating more than 26,000 possible war crimes committed by Russian soldiers and suspect even more will be uncovered as areas are liberated, Sky News reported. Ukraine’s Interior Minister Denis Monastirsky told the TV station: “Every day we record the death of many civilians. These are the crimes they committed and committed [Russia] in the occupied territories”. He added that Ukrainian authorities expected atrocities to be discovered in cities such as Mariupol and Severodonetsk, which are currently held by Russian forces. Meanwhile, the Russian military pounded residential areas across Ukraine overnight. Three people were killed and 13 others injured on Friday in a Russian rocket attack in the city of Kramatorsk, according to the mayor. The attack came less than a day after another 11 rockets were fired at the city, one of two main Ukrainian-held cities in Donetsk province, at the heart of an ongoing Russian offensive to seize eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. A man examines a damaged Russian tank in the Bucha region. Moscow continues to denigrate Ukraine with ferocity especially in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv and Kherson (Daniel Ceng Shou-Yi/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock) Russia’s defense ministry said on Saturday its forces were in control of Pisky, a village on the outskirts of the city of Donetsk, the capital of the province that pro-Moscow separatists have claimed since 2014. Russian troops and Kremlin-backed rebels are seeking to seize Ukrainian-held areas north and west of the city of Donetsk to expand the separatists’ self-proclaimed republic. Map of occupied territories in Ukraine (Press Association Images) However, the Ukrainian military said on Saturday that its forces had foiled an overnight advance on the smaller towns of Avdiivka and Bakhmut. The Ukrainian governor of neighboring Luhansk province, which is part of the battle for the Donbas region and was captured by Russian forces last month, claimed that Ukrainian troops still hold a small area. Writing on Telegram, Luhansk Governor Serhii Haidai said defense troops remained holed up inside an oil refinery on the edge of Lysychansk, a town Moscow claimed it had captured, and were also controlling areas near a village. “The enemy is burning the ground at the entrances to the Luhansk region because they cannot overcome (Ukrainian resistance along) these few kilometers,” Mr. Haidai said. “It’s hard to count how many thousands of shells this area of the Luhansk Free Zone has endured over the past month and a half.” Bomb hole in a factory building damaged by a rocket strike in the small town of Merefa, Kharkiv region (EPA) Further west, the governor of Dnipropetrovsk region reported more Russian shelling of the city of Nikopol, which is across the Dnipro River from Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. Governor Yevhen Yevtushenko did not specify whether Russian troops had fired on Nikopol from the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Writing on Telegram, he said on Saturday that there were no casualties, but residential buildings, a power line and a natural gas pipeline were damaged. Russia and Ukrainian officials have accused each other for days of bombing the Zaporizhia plant in violation of nuclear safety rules. Additional reporting by AP
