Ukrainian troops are inching closer to the eastern city of Bakhmut, the scene for some of the fiercest fighting in the continuing invasion, officials in Kyiv have said.
Deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said fierce fighting raged near the villages of Klishchiivka, Kurdyumivka and Andriivka on the southern flank of Bakhmut, a small city reduced to ruins in a bloody, months-long battle that gave Russian forces control of the area for now.
Despite steady Western military aid, Ukrainian military officials have said Russia still has an advantage in artillery, tanks and manpower.
But Volodymyr Zelensky’s military is about to receive a consignment of 1,700 strike and reconnaissance drones to help with its counteroffensive.
It comes as Russian forces struck port infrastructure in Ukraine‘s Odesa region in an overnight missile attack, killing a security guard and damaging a cargo terminal, the region’s governor said on Thursday.
Odesa’s ports have been regular targets for Russian attacks since Moscow withdrew on July 17 from a U.N.-brokered deal that allowed Ukrainian grain to be exported via the Black Sea.
