(C) Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
This story was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is unaltered.
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U.S. Says Russia Has Not Provided Information On The Whereabouts Of Two Captured Americans [1]
['Rfe Rl']
Date: 2022-07
Ukraine’s military said it launched a major counteroffensive in the south of the country on July 12 as it seeks to recapture territory taken earlier by Russian troops.
Ukrainian military strikes destroyed artillery, armored vehicles, "and a warehouse with ammunition" in the town of Nova Kakhovka, the Ukrainian military said at the start of its counteroffensive against Russian troops occupying parts of the Kherson region.
"Based on the results of our rocket and artillery units, the enemy lost 52 [soldiers], an Msta-B howitzer, a mortar, and seven armored and other vehicles, as well as an ammunition depot in Nova Kakhovka," Ukraine's southern military command said in statement.
However, Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported that the target was a mineral fertilizer storage site that exploded, and that a market, hospital, and nearby homes were damaged. Some ingredients in fertilizer can be used for ammunition.
Volodymyr Leontyev, head of the Kherson region’s Kremlin-installed civil-military administration, called it a “terrorist act” and said seven civilians were killed and another 80 injured.
As with other incidents during the war, battlefield claims on either side could not immediately be independently verified.
Moscow said later that a U.S.-supplied high-mobility artillery rocket system (HIMARS) was used in the attack on Nova Kakhovka, which is about 55 kilometers east of the key Black Sea port city of Kherson.
Ukrainian military did not specify what weapon it used, but Security Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service that precision weapons sent by foreign partners would accelerate the process of de-occupying territories captured by Russia.
Foreign weapons have worked “flawlessly,” he added. They “hit exactly where they need to."
The United States announced on July 8 that it would be sending four more. It said that would bring the number of HIMARS sent by Washington to 12.
Arms from the United States and other Western nations are seen by Russia as "an aggravation of the Ukrainian crisis," according to Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
She blamed the U.S. for an increased risk of direct military confrontation between the two nations.
Ukraine said late on July 12 that its air force destroyed another Russian ammunition depot in southern Ukraine. The press service of the air force said Su-25 attack aircraft and Su-24M bombers struck a cluster of weapons and military equipment in the Izyum and Donetsk directions.
Also in the Kherson region, Ukrainian military intelligence said on July 12 that its troops had rescued five Ukrainians in a special operation in an area occupied by separatist forces.
A statement identified the people rescued as a military serviceman, a former police officer, and three civilians. One had serious combat wounds, it added without providing further details.
The Ukrainian military earlier said it had assembled a massive force in preparation for a counteroffensive in the south as it seeks to retake key seaports -- including Kherson -- captured earlier by Russia following its February 24 invasion.
The bombardments in the south came as Washington and the European Union announced billions of dollars in combined for Ukraine and as the Kremlin’s forces continued to blast eastern Ukraine in their drive to take the crucial Donbas region.
The U.S. said it would provide a further $1.7 billion in aid to boost Ukraine's national budget for the payment of the salaries of health-care workers.
EU member states, meanwhile, approved 1 billion euros ($1 billion) in financial help for Kyiv, calling it the first installment of a promised 9 billion euro rescue package agreed in May.
In the east, Russian forces continued to intensify their shelling as they hit sites in the Donetsk region, which along with the Luhansk region make up the Donbas industrial heartland of Ukraine. The Donbas has become the focus of Russia's military effort following its failure to take Kyiv earlier in the conflict.
Ukraine's military said Russian forces were using massive shelling in the east as preparations for an intensification of ground hostilities. Ukrainian officials have called the strikes on civilian targets in the region "war crimes" and pleaded with the West to step up the delivery of weapons needed to resist the onslaught.
Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, how Kyiv is fighting back, Western military aid, worldwide reaction, and the plight of civilians and refugees. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.
In the eastern Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar, the head of the Donetsk regional military administration said the number of people killed in an air strike over the weekend on an apartment block is now 45.
Pavlo Kyrylenko said the number rescued from the rubble is nine, adding that 80 percent of the ruins have been dismantled.
Kyiv described the structure as a civilian residential building, while the Russian military saidit attacked a building used for military purposes.
Russia claims that it has not targeted civilians in Ukraine in what it calls its “special military operation.”
Russian troops on July 12 shelled Mykolayiv from the territory of the Kherson region using S-300 and antiaircraft missile systems, the mayor of the city, Mykolayiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said.
"One two-story building burned to the ground [and] nearby buildings were damaged by debris and the shock wave,” Senkevych said on Telegram.
Another five-story building was damaged by the tail of a rocket and a school building was destroyed. Two hospitals, a bank, and a post office also were damaged, while rockets struck the grounds of a fishing business. Twelve people were injured, he said.
Meanwhile, the White House on July 11 said it believes Iran is planning to provide Russia with “hundreds” of unmanned aerial vehicles, including weapons-capable drones, for use in its war in Ukraine.
U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on July 11 that Washington has information that shows Iran is preparing to train Russian forces to use the drones.
Sullivan said it was a sign that Russia's massive bombardments in Ukraine -- which have allowed Moscow to consolidate gains in eastern Ukraine following setbacks around Kyiv -- are "coming at a cost to the sustainment of its own weapons."
With reporting by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, AP, Reuters, BBC, and AFP
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[1] Url:
https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-captured-americans-huynh-drueke/31908860.html
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