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Ukraine is ready to launch its long-awaited counteroffensive to recapture Russian-occupied territory, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview published on Saturday.
“We strongly believe that we will succeed,” Zelensky told the Wall Street Journal.
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Around 25 NATO peacekeeping soldiers defending three town halls in northern Kosovo were injured in clashes with Serb protesters on Monday, while Serbia’s president put the army on the highest level of combat alert.
KFOR, the NATO-led peacekeeping mission to Kosovo, condemned the violence.
Russian forces suffered significant losses at Berdiansk in southern Ukraine, according to a post of the local pro-Kyiv authorities on Telegram. The post refers to an explosion in Berdiansk that was also reported on earlier by the media.
The post says: “Our soldiers hit Russian positions at Berdiansk,” and mentions “numerous casualties” without specifying the exact number.
An apparent attack on Russian soil by anti-Putin Russians, fighting in support of Ukraine, has sparked confusion and anger in Moscow.
Residents of the settlements under attack in Russia’s Belgorod region have been resettled in other areas as authorities continue “clearing the territory” after the cross-border incursion that launched in Ukraine, officials said on Tuesday.
Vladimir Putin has hailed his first major victory since the early days of the invasion of Ukraine, claiming Russian forces had captured the eastern city of Bakhmut despite Kyiv insisting the battle “was not over”.
Russia’s president said the paramilitary group Wagner had seized the Ukrainian city with help from Russia’s armed forces after a bloody, months-long battle that claimed more than 100,000 casualties and reduced the city to ruins.
