Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned during a late-night speech that Russia is “planning something” in the southern regions of Ukraine as Russian forces step up their aggression in the north.
Despite the significant gains Ukrainian forces made in completely repelling Russian troops from the northern Kharkiv region and pushing Russian forces east across the Dnieper River in the southern Kherson region, Zelenskyy sought to sound the alarm in his speech on Tuesday night.
“The situation at the front is difficult,” he warned. “Despite extremely large Russian losses, the occupiers are still trying to advance in the Donetsk region, gain a foothold in the Luhansk region, move in the Kharkiv region, they are planning something in the south.”
An infographic titled “Start Day of Russian Missile Attacks on Ukraine” is created in Ankara, Turkiye, on October 10, 2022. Kyiv said Moscow used missiles and UAVs in airstrikes that began in the morning.
(Photo by Elmurod Usubaliev/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
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Heavy fighting in the Donbas, which includes parts of the Luhansk and Dontesk regions, has been going on for months. Fighting has intensified in the two regions since Ukraine pushed the front lines further east in September.
Fox News was unable to independently verify Zelenskyy’s suggestion that Russian forces are once again seeking to advance on Kharkiv, though the northern region has once again seen increased shelling according to local reports this week.
Defense officials have repeatedly pointed to Russia’s inability to advance its ground forces in Ukraine following recent military advances from Kyiv.
Instead, Russia has rapidly ramped up its bombing campaign in Ukraine and has turned to international allies like Iran for help as its resources begin to dwindle.
A Ukrainian soldier watches a “Bureviy” 220mm self-propelled multiple rocket launcher firing towards Russian frontline positions, eastern Ukraine on November 29, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(Photo by ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP via Getty Images)
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The British Defense Ministry assessed on Saturday that Russian forces were using unarmed cruise missiles to continue attacking Ukrainian targets.
The ministry said the open source images showed Russian troops were relying on the destruction caused by the blast rather than the greater impact a warhead would create to continue their bombardment of civilian targets.
“Whatever Russia’s intention, this improvisation highlights the level of depletion in Russia’s stock of long-range missiles,” the ministry said.
When asked about this assessment on Tuesday, a senior defense official told reporters that “it is certainly something that they are trying to do to mitigate the effects of the air defense systems that the Ukrainians are employing.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a Security Council meeting via video link at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow on October 19, 2022.
(Photo by SERGEI ILYIN/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images)
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“We observe that Russia continues to double down on its strategy to try to inflict pain on the Ukrainian people to try to break their will,” the official said. “We don’t think they’re going to be successful, but they continue to draw on whatever stock they have.”
Ukrainian defense officials estimate that nearly 89,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine over the past nine months and Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that Kyiv believes 100,000 Russian soldiers will have been killed by the end of the year.
