Russia strengthens artillery on the border, Ukraine loses ground in the east

According to the AP news agency, in a daily note today (May 13), the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said that Russian troops attacked a series of villages near Donetsk, Lyman, Bakhmut and Kurakhiv, in the east. eastern Ukraine. In addition, Russian troops continued shelling and air strikes on the port of Mariupol, the town of Novopavlovsk and the industrial city of Zaporizhzhia – a refuge for refugees leaving Mariupol. Russia is also moving more artillery units to the border, close to Chernihiv.

Currently, Ukrainian troops have withdrawn from the city of Rubizhne in the Luhansk region after weeks of resistance, CNN news agency cited reports from the region. Video sent out from the city shows, The fighting was fierce on the outskirts of Rubizhne and a bridge connecting the city with neighboring Severodonetsk was destroyed.

According to the latest analysis by the Institute for the Study of War, the Russian army could control almost all of Rubizhne by May 12 and potentially capture the town of Voevodivka, north of Severdonetsk.

According to Reuters news agency, the Russian Defense Ministry said today that the Russian military attacked the Kremenchug oil refinery in central Ukraine, destroying production capacity and oil storage tanks there. In addition, Russian forces shot down a Ukrainian Su-27 fighter jet in Kharkiv. However, the above information has not been independently verified.

Satellite images from BlackSky and the European space agency show that three bridges vital to Ukraine’s counter-offensive have been knocked down. According to a photo taken by BlackSky on May 12, parts of the bridges spanning the River Siverskyi Donets, near the villages of Rubizhne and Staryi Saltiv, about 10km south of the Russian border, have collapsed. The village of Rubizhne, near Staryi Saltiv has the same name as the city of Rubizhne in the Luhansk region. Recently, Ukraine regained control of these villages.

The Ukrainian military today released a video showing the destruction of a pontoon bridge and part of a Russian military convoy as it was trying to cross a river in the Donbass region. The British Ministry of Defense confirmed the information given by Ukraine and said that Russia had lost at least one combat battalion and some equipment to deploy the pontoon. The Russian army has yet to make any significant progress despite concentrating its forces in the Luhansk and Donbass regions of eastern Ukraine.

Hoai Linh