Russia hits illegally annexed Ukraine areas from ground, air

Russian forces used ground- and air-fired missiles, rocket launchers and weaponized drones to bombard the provinces of Ukraine it has illegally annexed but doesn't fully control, causing casualties, building damage and power outages on Friday.

The Ukrainian military said Russian forces launched 18 airstrikes, five missile strikes and 53 attacks from multiple rocket launchers between Thursday and Friday mornings.

READ MORE

China launches military drills around Taiwan

Taiwan facing 'authoritarian expansionism' from China: President Tsai

According to the General Staff statement, Russia was concentrating the bulk of its offensive operations in Ukraine’s industrial east, focusing on the cities and towns of Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka in Donetsk province.

Most of Friday's battlefield reports concerned the four Ukrainian provinces Russia annexed in September: Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his military to gain complete control of the provinces, while Ukraine has indicated it will soon launch a counteroffensive to take back more territory.

Ukraine’s top priority is artillery ammunition, infantry vehicles, tanks and electronic warfare equipment.

Russia also annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, a move that most of the world also regarded as illegal. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to regain all Russian-occupied areas.

Looking ahead to how the war might end, Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, told Cypriot state broadcaster CyBC ahead of talks with his Cypriot counterpart on Friday that his country would negotiate peace with Russia only after its occupied territory is liberated. He said Zelenskyy has made clear he would negotiate only with Putin's successor to ensure peaceful coexistence.

Regarding armament procurement, Reznikov said Ukraine’s top priority is for antiaircraft systems, followed by artillery ammunition, infantry vehicles, tanks and electronic warfare equipment, including drones and anti-drone technology.

In the latest fighting, the Ukrainian military said it downed a Russian Su-25 ground attack jet near Marinka. A video showed a big explosion as the plane slammed into the ground, with its pilot descending on a parachute. The Russian military, in keeping with its general silence on losses, didn’t confirm the warplane's downing.

Associated Press