According to the Ukrainian army, several Russian units in Ukraine are withdrawing after heavy casualties. Some units have returned to Russian territory after losing half of their troops.
According to a top official in the Ukrainian government, Oleksij Arestovich, the frontline of the war has virtually “frozen” after a month of fighting. Nevertheless, the Russians continue to besiege the country’s second city, Kharkiv and prepare a new offensive 100 kilometres to the southeast in the Izhum region.
The Russians have also previously established a link between the Ukrainian-Russian border at Mariupol and the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed in 2014. But there is not much movement in the front. Mariupol is still not wholly in the hands of the pro-Russian militias from eastern Ukraine. On Friday, according to Kyiv, there would be the possibility for civilians to leave the city via a humanitarian corridor with their own transport.
During the night from Thursday to Friday, Russian forces attacked a military base with two rockets on the outskirts of the town of Dnipro, about 180 kilometres southwest of Kharkiv. There would have been many casualties. In addition, Russian General Igor Konashenkov said on behalf of the defence ministry that Ukraine’s largest oil storage depot was destroyed with cruise missiles late on Thursday.
According to him, this happened with Kalibr precision cruise missiles that were fired from naval ships at the fuel reserves near the village of Kalinovka.