Russia and US say attacks by Putin’s forces in east are ‘new offensive’ – live

Nearly a third of Ukrainian territory is unsafe due to mines and unexploded ordinance, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday.

Demining and clearing of explosive materials were issues discussed at a two-day conference in Croatia in October.

About 250 people have reportedly been killed by mines so far in Ukraine, and over 500 have been injured.

More than 40 countries took part in the conference in Croatia, and jointly pledged about 500 million euros ($530 million) to assist in demining

Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has moved a number of its ‘prestige assets’ following a series of strikes by Ukraine in August and September, the Ministry of Defence has said.

In it’s daily update on progress on the war, the MoD said cruise missile capable ships and submarines had been relocated from Sevastopol to bases further east.

“The risk of further military losses and the dire political consequences of Russian naval forces overtly attacking merchant shipping would highly likely outweigh any gain from attempting to enforce a blockade of Ukrainian-bound trade.”

Ukrainian officials have said assaults being carried out by Russian forces are “relentless”, as the ongoing attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka entered its fifth day.

“The enemy has not stopped either assaulting or shelling positions” around Avdiivka, city head Vitalii Barabash said on Ukrainian television.

Barabash also reported that Moscow was deploying additional forces to encircle the strategically important city in the eastern Donetsk region, situated just north of the Moscow-held regional capital, also called Donetsk.

Around 1,600 civilians remain within the city, a stark contrast to its prewar population of about 31,000.

Barabash’s comments came after Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, told a U.N. Security Council meeting on Friday that the intensified attacks in the east amounted to a new stage in Moscow’s campaign in Ukraine.

“Russian troops have, for several days now, switched over to active combat action practically throughout the entire front line — The so-called Ukrainian counteroffensive can therefore be considered finished,” he said.

Ukraine has said they have uncovered more than 700,000 explosive objects in the country.

Sappers surveyed more than 152,000 hectares looking for potentially deadly devices.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine posted a video of their efforts on X on Saturday morning.

An 11 year-old boy has reportedly been killed in a Russian attack on a Ukraine village.

The child died during a rocket strike against the village of Bahatyr, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine’s National Police said on Saturday.

His brother, six, and their mother, 31, were also injured in the blast, the Kyiv Independent reported.

Fighting along the northern portion of Ukraine‘s eastern front has “significantly worsened” in recent days, the commander of Kyiv’s ground forces said on Saturday.

Oleksandr Syrskyi, who was visiting Ukrainian troops in the area, said Russian forces had regrouped after suffering losses and were attacking around the village of Makiivka and towards the city of Kupiansk.

“The main objective of the enemy is the defeat of a grouping of our troops, the encirclement of Kupiansk and to reach the Oskil River,” he said in comments carried by an official military platform.

Syrskyi added that Russian forces were carrying out “dozens” of assaults each day, but that Ukrainian troops had been ready and were holding their ground.

The development comes as Kremlin forces were also pummelling the strategic Ukrainian city of Avdiivka, on a different section of the eastern front, in what Russian and Western officials said amounted to a new offensive.

A four-month-old Ukrainian counteroffensive has made some progress in both the east, near Bakhmut, and in the south, where Kyiv hopes to reach the Sea of Azov, but gains have been incremental.

The Ministry of Defence has posted a new map showing the latest situation on the ground in Ukraine.

The UK’s MoD shared the image on Friday, highlighting two likely Ukrainian advances in Bakhmut in the east and Orikhiv in the south.

In Washington, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the Russian action amounted to a “new offensive”, showing that Russia was in no way ready to give up its campaign.

But the United States, he said, was confident that the Ukrainian military would beat back Russian forces.

Military analyst Serhiy Zgurets, writing on the Espreso TV website, said Avdiivka had withstood Russian attacks in 2014, when Russian-financed separatists had seized large chunks of Ukrainian territory. The area had since been fortified.

“All Russian attacks have resulted in significant losses for them,” he wrote.

Russia’s representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, said the intensified battles in the east signified a new stage in its campaign.

“Russian troops have, for several days now, switched over to active combat action practically throughout the entire front line,” Nebenzia told a session of the U.N. Security Council.

“The so-called Ukrainian counteroffensive can therefore be considered finished.”

Russian forces pounded the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka for the fourth day in a row on Friday, a new offensive in Putin’s 19-month-old invasion.

In attacks elsewhere in Ukraine, a Russian missile strike killed one person in the city of Pokrovsk, also in the east, while a drone attack in the south killed a women and seriously injured her husband.

In Avdiivka, known for its large coking plant in Ukraine‘s Donbas industrial heartland, officials said the Russian assaults had left the already-gutted city in flames.

“The fighting has been going on for four consecutive days,” Vitaliy Barabash, head of the city’s military administration, told Ukrainian national television.

“They have substantial reserves of personnel and equipment. Avdiivka is completely ablaze. They shoot, using everything they have. The hospital is again under fire, as are administrative buildings and our volunteer centre.”