Summary
Here’s a roundup of the key developments from the day.
A top Ukrainian commander has claimed that Russia’s biggest offensive in months – involving tanks, thousands of soldiers and armoured vehicles in an attack on the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka – is failing, as he admitted Kyiv’s own attempts to advance in the south were proving “difficult”. At least 36 Russian tanks and armoured vehicles were destroyed in the first 24 hours, he said. According to the Kyiv Post, that figure has risen to 102 tanks and 183 armoured vehicles lost, with 2,840 troops killed.
Fierce fighting in Avdiivka entered a fifth day as Russia continued to deploy new forces in an attempt to surround the city, according to Vitaliy Barabash, the head of its military administration. Shelling was so fierce that emergency crews were unable to recover the dead from wrecked buildings, he said. Both Moscow and Washington have described the upsurge in violence around Avdiivka as a new Russian offensive.
At least six people have been killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine in the past 24 hours, local officials reported Sunday. Two people were killed and three more injured in the Kherson area after more than 100 shells bombarded the region over the weekend, the local governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, wrote on social media, according to AP.
The White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Sunday that a new weapons package for Israel and Ukraine would be significantly higher than $2bn.In an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation, said Sullivan said Joe Biden would have extensive talks with the US Congress this week on the need for the package to be approved.
The EU has urged China to treat it as a geopolitical power in the wake of the war against Russia in Ukraine. Ending a visit to Shangai and Beijing, Josep Borrell, the bloc’s high representative for foreign affairs said it was one of three messages he conveyed to his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.
Vladimir Putin, said in an interview published on Sunday that suggestions in the west that the US prepare for a simultaneous war with both Russia and China were nonsense, Reuters reports.
Russian forces have improved their positions along almost the entire line of contact in Ukraine, Putin said on Sunday. Reuters reports that in a video posted to social media by the Kremlin journalist Pavel Zarubin, Putin said: “What is happening now along the entire length of the [line of] contact is called ‘an active defence’”
Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked troops in areas where fighting was “particularly hot”. In his regular address he said: “I thank everyone who is holding their positions and destroying Russian troops”, citing Avdiivka, Maryinka and other key locations in the Donetsk region.
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had shot down two Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea near the southern resort city of Sochi on Saturday morning. The city’s mayor, Alexei Kopaigorodskyi, said there had been no casualties or damage and that the situation was under control.
A top Ukraine general said fighting in the north-east had “significantly worsened” as daily Russian attacks continued.
Protesters gathered outside city hall in Odesa again to speak out against the misuse of budget funds and pay tribute to Ukrainian soldiers killed or injured in the war.
We’ll be closing this liveblog shortly. Thanks so much for joining us.
Updated
My colleaue Luke Harding has this report from Ukraine. The major assault Russia launched on Tuesday in Donetsk is said to have resulted in serious losses for Moscow’s forces.
A top Ukrainian commander has claimed that Russia’s biggest offensive in months – involving tanks, thousands of soldiers and armoured vehicles in an attack on the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka – is failing, as he admitted Kyiv’s own attempts to advance in the south were proving “difficult”.
Russian forces have pummelled the town over the past week, a key bulge surrounded by Russian-held territory on the eastern Donbas front. It is one of the largest assaults by Moscow since last year’s full-scale invasion and comes at a time when Ukraine’s counteroffensive is moving slowly, and the world is focused on the imminent Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.
At least three Russian battalions, each supported by an estimated 2,000-3,000 troops, began a dawn attack on Tuesday. Drone footage showed a line of military vehicles trundling forward. There has been intense fighting ever since. Russia has bombarded the city with relentless artillery fire and airstrikes.
Ukrainian military officials say Moscow’s goal is to encircle Avdiivka, but so far the attackers have made modest gains. Russia’s 25th combined arms army pushed forward from the south and north. It seized the nearby village of Berdychi and closed in on a 150-metre high slag heap next to the town’s coke and chemical factory.
The Russians have suffered serious losses. At least 36 Russian tanks and armoured vehicles were destroyed in the first 24 hours. According to the Kyiv Post, that figure has risen to 102 tanks and 183 armoured vehicles lost, with 2,840 troops killed. There were chaotic scenes. One tank fell off a pontoon bridge into a river. Another crushed a Russian soldier as it reversed; a Ukrainian munition then blew it up.
Col Dmytro Lysyuk – the commander of Ukraine’s 128th separate mountain assault brigade – said he believed there was zero possibility the Russian army would break through. He said that sending a lengthy military column into battle – a tactic used when Russian forces tried to seize Kyiv last year, and the eastern town of Vuhledar in February – would not work.
“The Russians should have realised this a long time ago,” said Lysyuk. “They have not managed to achieve even tactical success.” He added that Gen Valery Gerasimov, the chief of Russia’s general staff, was responsible: Gerasimov had underestimated Ukraine’s strength in Avdiivka, which has been on the frontline since 2014, when Moscow seized the nearby city of Donetsk. “It was an intelligence failure,” Lysyuk said.
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