Ukraine continues offensive operations in the northeast of the country while Russian forces have established a defensive line between the Oskil River and the town of Svatove, British military intelligence said on Saturday.
“Russia likely sees maintaining control of this zone as important because it is transited by one of the few main resupply routes Russia still controls from the Belgorod region of Russia,” the British defence ministry said in a regular Twitter update.
“Russia will likely attempt to conduct a stubborn defence of this area, but it is unclear whether Russia’s front line forces have sufficient reserves or adequate morale to withstand another concerted Ukrainian assault,” it said.
The defence ministry said in a daily intelligence briefing that the line likely is between the Oskil River and Svatove, some 150km southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
The new line comes after a Ukrainian counteroffensive punched a hole through the previous front line in the war and recaptured large swathes of land in the northeastern Kharkiv region that borders Russia.
Russia launches strikes
Russia’s defence ministry said on Saturday that its forces had launched strikes on Ukrainian positions in several parts of Ukraine, and accused Kyiv of carrying out shelling near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Russian forces conducted their strikes in the Kherson, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, according to the ministry, which added that Ukrainian forces had carried out an unsuccessful offensive near Pravdyne in Kherson.
Ukraine gets $1.5bn
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal thanked the United States on Saturday for its support after Ukraine received a further $1.5 billion in international financial assistance.
“The state budget of Ukraine received a grant of $1.5 billion. This is the last tranche of $4.5 billion aid from the United States from @WorldBank Trust Fund,” Shmyhal tweeted.
He said the funds would be used to reimburse budget expenditure for pension payments and social assistance programmes.
War crimes tribunal
The Czech Republic, which currently holds the EU presidency, on Saturday called for the establishment of an international tribunal for war crimes after new mass graves were found in Ukraine.
The appeal follows the discovery of around 450 graves outside the formerly Russian-occupied city of Izyum with most of the exhumed bodies showing signs of torture. “In the 21st century, such attacks against the civilian population are unthinkable and abhorrent,” Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavsky said on Twitter.
Investigators said some bodies in the graves found near the eastern Ukrainian city of Izyum had hands tied behind their backs. They also found the bodies of children.