#khmelnytskyi

Two Russian pilots were killed on Friday when a Russian Mi-28 military helicopter crashed in the annexed peninsula of Crimea, Russian news agencies reported, citing the defence ministry.

The defence ministry said it believed the reason for the crash was equipment failure, the TASS news agency reported.

The crash occurred at 3.42pm local time during a training flight, and the helicopter was flying without weapons, news agencies cited the defence ministry as saying in a statement.

An investigation was opened to confirm the cause of the crash, which occurred in the Dzhankoi region of northern Crimea.

-via The Guardian

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The Russian news outlet Kommersant reported that two Russian fighter jets and two military helicopters had been shot down on Saturday close to the Ukrainian border.

Kommersant said on its website that the Su-34 fighter-bomber, Su-35 fighter and two Mi-8 helicopters had made up a raiding party, and had been “shot down almost simultaneously” in an ambush in the Bryansk region, adjoining northeast Ukraine.

“According to preliminary data … the fighters were supposed to deliver a missile and bomb attack on targets in the Chernihiv region of Ukraine, and the helicopters were there to back them up – among other things to pick up the ‘Su’ crews if they were shot down.”

The Russian state news agency Tass said a Russian Su-34 warplane had crashed in that region but did not specify a cause.

Tass also cited an emergency services official as saying an engine fire in a helicopter had caused it to crash near Klintsy, which is about 40 km (25 miles) from the border.

It made no mention of the Su-35 or of a second helicopter.

-via The Guardian

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Ukrainian forces have been able to capture more than ten Russian positions near Bakhmut, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said in a Telegram post on Sunday.

“Today our units captured more than ten enemy positions in the north and south of Bakhmut's outskirts and cleared a large area of forest near Ivanivske,” Maliar said.

The minister also noted Ukraine “continues to move forward in the suburbs of Bakhmut.”

Maliar called the situation in Bakhmut “very hot.”

“The enemy has gathered all its forces there and is trying to advance, destroying everything in its path. Fierce fighting continues,” she added.

Some background: Bakhmut is the site of a months-long assault by Russian forces, including Wagner mercenaries, that has driven thousands from their homes and left the area devastated. But despite the vast amounts of manpower Russia has poured into capturing the city, they have been unable to take total control, and this week suffered heavy losses in the area.

CNN had previously reported that Ukrainian forces have been able to push the Russians back 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) around the eastern city of Bakhmut over the past week, Maliar said Friday.

-via CNN

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At least 21 people were injured and two others were hospitalized in the western Khmelnytskyi region of Ukraine after Russian attacks early Saturday morning, according to the deputy head of the regional military administration.

"Today, the enemy once again attacked Khmelnytskyi with a strike drone, hitting one of the critical infrastructure facilities of the region, located outside the settlements," Serhii Tiurin said on Telegram. "As of now, we have 21 injured people. Two of them were hospitalized, the others received medical assistance and were transferred to outpatient treatment."

Tiurin said there was some damage sustained in the attack.

"In particular, educational, medical and cultural institutions, administrative buildings, industrial facilities, high-rise and individual residential buildings were damaged," he said.

Ukraine's Air Force said Saturday that 17 out of 21 Russian drones had been intercepted overnight by its air defense system.

-via CNN

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Moscow acknowledged on Friday that its forces had fallen back north of Ukraine's battlefield city of Bakhmut after a new Ukrainian offensive, in a retreat that the head of Russia's Wagner private army called a rout.

The setback for Russia, which follows similar reports of Ukrainian advances south of the city, suggests a coordinated push by Kyiv to encircle Russian forces in Bakhmut, Moscow's main objective for months during the war's bloodiest fighting.

"In three days of counter-offensive activity, the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Bakhmut sector have liberated 17.3 sq. km (6.6 sq. miles) of territory," Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesman for the "east" group of Ukrainian forces, said on the Telegram messaging app.

Both sides are now reporting the biggest Ukrainian gains in six months, although Ukraine has given few details and played down suggestions a huge, long-planned counteroffensive has officially begun.

Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Ukraine had launched an assault north of Bakhmut with more than 1,000 troops and up to 40 tanks, a scale that if confirmed would amount to the biggest Ukrainian offensive since November.

The Russians had repelled 26 attacks but troops in one area had fallen back to regroup in more favourable positions near the Berkhivka reservoir northwest of Bakhmut, Konashenkov said.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner forces that have led the campaign in the city, said in an audio message: "What Konashenkov described, unfortunately, is called 'a rout' and not a regrouping".

In a separate video message, Prigozhin said the Ukrainians had seized high ground overlooking Bakhmut and opened the main highway leading into the city from the West.

"The loss of the Berkhivka reservoir - the loss of this territory they gave up - that's 5 sq km, just today," Prigozhin said.

"The enemy has completely freed up the Chasiv Yar-Bakhmut road which we had blocked. The enemy is now able to use this road, and secondly they have taken tactical high ground under which Bakhmut is located," said Prigozhin, who has repeatedly denounced Russia's regular military over the past week for failing to supply his men in Bakhmut.

Russian-installed officials said two missiles hit an industrial complex in Luhansk, in Russian-occupied territory around 100 km (60 miles) behind the front. Video posted on the internet showed huge columns of smoke above the city. The strike, just beyond the range of the main battlefield rockets Ukraine has previously deployed, came a day after Britain announced it was sending longer-range cruise missiles.

The Ukrainian advance near Bakhmut appears to have begun on Tuesday when a Ukrainian unit southwest of the city said it defeated a Russian brigade, recapturing a swathe of land. Prigozhin also said the Russian brigade there fled.

Reuters has not been able to independently verify the situation in the area.

In its evening report on Friday, the Ukrainian military command described fighting in Bakhmut and Russian shelling of nearby towns, but made no mention of any advance or Russian withdrawal.

Prigozhin, whose fighters have been battling to push Ukrainian forces out of Bakhmut's Western outskirts, has said the north and south flanks, guarded by regular Russian troops, were crumbling. Russia's defence ministry denies this.

In his nightly address, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the Russians were "already internally ready for defeat".

"They have already lost this war in their minds. We must put pressure on them every day so that their sense of defeat turns into their flight, their mistakes, their losses."