Russian forces are managing to “raise true hell” in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland despite reports of them taking an operational pause, a regional governor has said.
The Ukrainian government has urged people in Russian-occupied areas in the south to evacuate “by all possible means”, while deadly Russian shelling was reported in Ukraine’s east and south.
The governor of Luhansk, Serhyi Haidai, said Russia launched more than 20 artillery, mortar and rocket strikes in the province overnight and its forces are pressing towards the border with neighbouring Donetsk.
“We are trying to contain the Russians’ armed formations along the entire front line,” Mr Haidai wrote on Telegram.
“So far, there has been no operational pause announced by the enemy. He is still attacking and shelling our lands with the same intensity as before.”
Last week, Russia captured the last major stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk, the city of Lysychansk. Analysts predicted Moscow’s troops would take time to rearm and regroup.
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk appealed to residents of Russian-held territories in the south to evacuate so the occupying forces cannot use them as human shields in the event of a Ukrainian counter-offensive.
Speaking at a news conference late on Friday, Ms Vereshchuk said a civilian evacuation effort was under way for parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. She declined to give details, citing safety considerations.
It was not clear how civilians were expected to safely leave Russian-controlled areas while missile strikes and artillery shelling continue in surrounding areas, or whether they would be allowed to depart or even hear the government’s appeal.
Meanwhile, the war’s death toll continued to rise.
Five people were killed and eight more wounded in Russian shelling on Friday of Siversk and Semyhirya in Donetsk province, its governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Saturday.
In the city of Sloviansk, named as a likely next target of Russia’s offensive, rescuers said they pulled a 40-year-old man from the rubble of a building destroyed by shelling on Saturday morning. Mr Kyrylenko said multiple people were trapped in the debris.
Russian missiles killed two people and injured three others on Saturday morning in the southern city of Kryvyi Rih, according to regional authorities.
“They deliberately targeted residential areas,” Valentyn Reznichenko, the governor of the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, said.
Kryvyi Rih’s mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said that cluster munitions had been used, and he urged residents not to approach unfamiliar objects in the streets.
Seven people were injured in a Russian rocket strike on Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, on Saturday morning and three of them were taken to hospital, including a child, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
In Mykolayiv, mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said six Russian missiles were fired at the city in southern Ukraine, near the Black Sea, but caused no casualties.
The British Ministry of Defence reported on Saturday that Russian forces in Ukraine are now being armed with “obsolete or inappropriate equipment”, including MT-LB armoured vehicles taken out of long-term storage.
The MT-LB entered service in the Soviet military in the 1950s and does not provide the same protection as modern armoured vehicles.
“While MT-LBS have previously been in service in support roles on both sides, Russia long considered them unsuitable for most frontline infantry transport roles,” the MoD said on Twitter.
The Russians also have brought Cold War-era tanks out of storage.
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