KYIV: A senior Kremlin official said Friday that Russian police and National Guard will stay on in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas and oversee the industry-rich region, even if a peace settlement ends Russia’s nearly four-year war in Ukraine.
The remarks by Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov underscore Moscow’s ambition to maintain its presence in Donbas post-war. Ukraine is likely to reject such a stance as US-led negotiations drag on.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian units have recaptured several settlements and neighborhoods near the city of Kupiansk in the northeastern Kharkiv region, following a monthslong operation aimed at reversing Russian advances there.
Kupiansk has in recent months been one of the most closely contested sectors of the around 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line, and the claimed Ukrainian progress of around 40 sq. km. (15 sq. miles) would be a setback for Russia.
Less than two months ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Ukrainian troops in Kupiansk were surrounded and offered to negotiate their surrender. He said a media visit to the area would prove it. Putin has sought to portray Russia as negotiating from a position of strength in the war.
Ukrainian weapons
Ukraine also has developed its long-range strike capabilities using domestically produced weapons to disrupt Russia’s war machine.
Its Special Operations Forces, or SSO, said Friday that an operation in the Caspian Sea struck two Russian vessels carrying military equipment and arms.
The ships named Kompozitor Rakhmaninov and Askar-Saridzha are under US sanctions for transporting arms between Russia and Iran, the SSO said in a statement on social media. It didn’t say what weapons it used in its attack.
Cross-border drone strikes
A Ukrainian drone attack wounded seven people, including a child, in the Russian city of Tver, acting Gov. Vitaly Korolev said Friday. Falling drone debris struck an apartment building in the city, which lies northwest of Moscow, Korolev said.
Russia’s air defenses destroyed 90 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s Defense Ministry said.
Russian drones struck a residential area of Pavlohrad, in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, killing one person and wounding four others, the head of the local military administration, Vladyslav Haivanenko, wrote on the Telegram messaging channel on Friday.
Ukraine’s southern Odesa region came under a large-scale drone attack overnight, according to regional chief Oleh Kiper. The attack damaged energy infrastructure, he said. More than 90,000 people were without electricity on Friday morning, Deputy Energy Minister Roman Andarak said.
Ukraine’s air force said that Russia launched 80 drones across the country during the night.