Ukraine-Russia War: Latest News – The New York Times

Military analysts have said for days that Russian forces have “paused” their offensive operations in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. But try telling that to the Ukrainian fighters under fire and dug into defensive positions in towns and villages.

Skirmishes raged in at least 10 locations in Donetsk Province, the Ukrainian authorities said on Friday, as the Russians tried to improve their positions along a fragmented front line, apparently in advance of what is expected to be a much larger military push to seize the parts of the province they do not control.

“The occupiers tried to take control of the section of the road” that runs between the cities of Bakhmut and Lysychansk, the Ukrainian general staff said in an evening bulletin that listed a host of clashes. Russian forces had also conducted “assault operations” in several other locations, including the villages of Nagirny and Bilohorivka, the bulletin said. “Ukrainian soldiers stopped all these poor attempts of the enemy with fire and pushed him back.”

Elsewhere in the province, the bulletin spoke of how Ukrainian soldiers “again successfully repelled” an assault and, in a different location, it said: “Under the fire of Ukrainian soldiers the remnants of the enemy forces retreated.” There was no immediate comment on the fighting from Moscow.

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