Russia takes control of strategic town in eastern Ukraine

▲ A Russian military plane was shot down on the outskirts of Kostantinovka, a city near the front line in the Donietsk region.Photo Ap

AFP, Sputnik, Europa Press and Ap

La Jornada Newspaper
Sunday, October 6, 2024, p. 18

Moscow. Yesterday, Russia claimed responsibility for the capture of a new town near the city of Pokrovsk, an important logistical point in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow’s forces have been progressively advancing for weeks.

Thanks to active and decisive action, units of the southern troop group liberated the village of Zhelannoye Vtoroyeindicated the Russian Defense Ministry, using the Russian name of the town.

The note adds that the aviation, unmanned aerial vehicles, missile systems and artillery of its army dealt a military blow to Ukrainian personnel and equipment in 146 districts, in addition, the anti-aircraft defense shot down three guided aerial bombs yesterday. Hammereight projectile launchers Himars and 55 airplane-type unmanned aerial vehicles in the area of ​​the special military operation.

Meanwhile, British military intelligence considered that the Russian conquest of the Ukrainian town of Vuhledar, on October 1, may represent the beginning of a new offensive by Moscow’s forces that are increasingly taking over more control points in the west of the territory.

Yesterday ended the renewed Russian offensive which was deployed in September, when Moscow’s forces had already practically surrounded the city, with only one open space that the Ukrainian forces took advantage of to withdraw.

In its latest assessment of the war in Ukraine, the British Ministry of Defense recalled the strategic importance of the town, which is located right at the intersection of two key fronts for the war, such as Zaporizhia and Donietsk.

The British indicated that Russia tried to conquer the city practically from the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, in February 2022, a task that they considered very difficult as it was on especially high ground.

American jailed

The Russian prosecutor’s office yesterday requested a sentence of seven years in prison in the trial against a US citizen accused of fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine in the war, agencies of the Eurasian nation reported.

The prosecutor recommended that the sentence be served in a colony for criminals convicted of serious crimes, the Russian news agency Interfax reported.

However, the State’s attorney recognized that the age of the accused (72 years) and his subsequent confession can be considered as mitigating circumstances.

Russian justice accuses Hubbard of signing a contract with the Ukrainian army, for which he was supposed to receive at least a thousand dollars.

According to the news outlet, the American citizen is originally from Michigan and had lived in Ukraine since 2014; Following the Russian invasion, he joined a territorial defense battalion in Izium, a city in eastern Ukraine located in the Kharkiv region, currently controlled by Russia.

The US embassy in Moscow told the AP news agency that it was aware of reports about the arrest of a US citizenbut indicated that he could not comment further due to privacy restrictions.