The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported in its daily briefing that fighting intensified around Bakhmut in the Donbass region. Taking Bakhmut would allow the Russians to advance on the region’s main Ukrainian-held cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. Ukraine war live updates: Drone strikes ‘on Russian targets in Crimea’ The general staff briefing said Sloviansk and Kramatorsk were also targeted on Friday along with the Kharkiv region in the north, home to Ukraine’s second largest city. Bakhmut has been a key target for Russian forces for weeks as they try to complete a months-long campaign to take control of the entire Donbas region. The Kremlin said in April that its main goal is to seize Donbass after failing to take control of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. Pro-Moscow separatists have declared a pair of independent republics, the Luhansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic, in the Donbass since 2014. A local Ukrainian official said there was continued fighting on Saturday morning near four settlements on the border between the wider Luhansk and Donetsk provinces, which together make up the disputed industrial area. Russian forces took control of almost all of Luhansk last month and have since focused on capturing Ukrainian-held areas of Donetsk. Russian shelling killed seven civilians in Donetsk province on Friday, including four in Bakhmut, governor Pavlo Kirilenko wrote on Telegram on Saturday. Moscow says it shot down a drone over Crimea It came as Russian authorities said they shot down a Ukrainian drone over Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol in annexed Crimea. It was the second drone incident at the headquarters in three weeks and followed explosions at a Russian airport and ammunition depot in Crimea this month. The Russian-appointed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhaev, said a drone landed on the roof of the fleet headquarters after being shot down by local air defenses. Use Chrome browser for more accessible video player 0:30 Smoke rises after an explosion at a Black Sea port Young girl loses an eye in Russian attack Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said Saturday that Russian shelling collapsed balconies and blew out windows in the Mykolaiv district in the south of the country, injuring at least nine civilians. A five-story apartment building and private homes in the city of Voznesensk were severely damaged, the governor of the Black Sea region said. Vitaliy Kim wrote in a Telegram post: “As of 1.30pm (local time) – nine injured, including four children. All children in serious condition. Ages range from three to 17.” He added that a young girl lost an eye as a result of Saturday’s attack. Reflecting the widening of the front lines of the nearly six-month war, a Ukrainian airstrike hit targets in the largest Russian-held city in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, according to local Ukrainian and Kremlin officials. Image: A building destroyed by a Russian missile attack in Voznesensk Moscow accuses Ukraine of poisoning its soldiers The fighting comes as Moscow accused Kyiv on Saturday of poisoning some of its soldiers in Zaporizhia in late July. An adviser to Ukraine’s interior ministry said in response that the suspected poisoning could have been caused by Russian forces eating expired meat. Read more: What are the risks of a nuclear accident in Ukraine? Ukraine claims Russia is preparing to ‘challenge’ Europe’s biggest nuclear plant Brazenness by Russian troops in Kherson appears to confirm officers are gone Moscow said several Russian servicemen were taken to a military hospital with signs of severe poisoning on July 31. Tests showed a toxic substance, botulinum toxin type B, in their bodies, he said. He did not say how many soldiers suffered or what their condition is now. Botulinum toxin type B is a neurotoxin that can cause botulism, a life-threatening condition, when ingested in previously contaminated food.
