(Moscow) The Russian army said on Friday it was advancing “in all directions” in Ukraine, where it is on the offensive in the east of the country, but on a front largely blocked at the start of winter Ukrainian forces ensure they repel these attacks and maintain the few positions acquired in the counter-offensive of recent months.
While according to a Ukrainian security source in Kyiv, the SBU security services took the conflict deep into Russian territory by blowing up convoys of petroleum products on the strategic Baikal-Amur (BAM) railway line, serving the Extreme -East of the country, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered by decree in the evening to increase the number of Russian soldiers by another 15%, already increased to 1.15 million in 2022.
“The increase in the number of armed forces is due to an increase in threats targeting our country,” explained the Russian Defense Ministry, citing the offensive against Ukraine and the “continued enlargement of NATO “.
In Ukraine itself, Russian forces are “expanding their zones of control in all directions,” Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had previously said, assuring that the Ukrainians’ combat capabilities had been “considerably reduced” after their counter-offensive. .
The Ukrainian counter-offensive, launched this summer after months of preparations, has stalled in the South and East in the face of the scale of the defenses – notably formidable minefields – deployed by the Russians, without any advances. scale nor hope of a breakthrough at the start of winter.
Since the beginning of autumn, Russian forces have been relentlessly attacking Avdiivka, an industrial town on the outskirts of Donetsk (east) which they are seeking to encircle and take.
Oleksandr Tarnavsky, the Ukrainian commander responsible for the Avdiïvka area, however assured Friday that his men “firmly hold the lines”, still inflicting significant losses on the Russians, who according to him are launching attacks using armored vehicles. but also by successive human waves.
In their daily report, the Ukrainian armed forces essentially denied the Russian minister’s statements, claiming to have repelled countless Russian attacks across the entire front line.
According to this report published Friday evening, 67 armed confrontations took place. The Ukrainian army claims to have repelled 9 Russian attacks in the Kupiansk area (north-east), 7 in the Lyman area (east), 18 in the Bakhmout area, 16 in the Avdiivka area.
PHOTO SABRINA BLANCHARD, AFP
Map of areas controlled by Ukrainian and Russian forces in Ukraine as of November 30, 2023.
“In the Zaporizhia region (south), the enemy tried in vain, 10 times, to regain lost ground” during the Ukrainian counter-offensive, according to the Ukrainian report.
As for the southern region of Kherson, where Ukrainian forces managed to establish bridgeheads on the left bank of the Dnieper River where they had managed to push back the Russians last year, “the armed forces will continue to hold on there their positions,” assured the Ukrainian army.
The AFP was unable to independently verify all of these claims.
In any case, Russian forces continue to bomb cities in Ukraine every night.
Sabotage in Russia
During the night from Thursday to Friday, “the enemy used two Kh-59 missiles and 25 Shahed 136/131 attack drones,” the Ukrainian Air Force said, claiming to have shot down 18 drones and one missile. over the southern regions.
She did not say whether Russia had managed to hit its targets.
Ukraine, for its part, regularly launches drones towards Russian territory, some even reaching Moscow. They are usually shot down by Russian anti-aircraft defenses, doing limited damage.
But this time, it was thousands of kilometers to the east that the Ukrainian security services (SBU) carried out a double sabotage operation on the masterful Baikal-Amur, a railway line of strategic importance serving the Extreme -Russian East, a source within the Ukrainian law enforcement told AFP on Friday.
The first attack took place during the night from Wednesday to Thursday in the Bessolov tunnel in Severomouisk, the longest in Russia, said this source, according to which four explosive devices were triggered during the passage of a convoy of petroleum products.
The second then targeted an alternative section of the railway line to which traffic had been diverted, at the time when a convoy “passed over a 35 meter high bridge”, said this source.
The SBU declined to comment officially on these claims.
Russian Railways limited itself to reporting on Thursday on Telegram a fire on a train transporting fuel in the Severomuysk tunnel. Rail traffic was diverted to another section, they added, without citing the second incident.
However, the Telegram Baza channel, close to Russian security services and followed by more than a million people, reported on Friday “sabotage” having caused explosions on two trains “in the same area” of Buryatia.