Ukraine reports unrelenting Russian attacks on key city of Bakhmut

Kyiv officials reported Russia’s military bombarded Bakhmut and Kherson on Thursday.

Bakhmut is crucial to the Kremlin’s sluggish push in eastern Ukraine a year after invading.

On Telegram, Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar reported severe fighting across the eastern front. She claimed pro-Kyiv soldiers repelled most attacks.

“Most of the enemy’s offensive efforts are occurring in the Bakhmut sector,” she said, adding that Russian leadership had moved soldiers there.

The adversary is using its best units and a lot of artillery and aviation. The adversary storms Bakhmut 40–50 times and shells 500 times daily.”

The Ukrainian military denied the Wagner mercenary group’s claim that they controlled 80% of Bakhmut.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other authorities are pressuring allies for more armaments to undertake a strong counter-offensive later this year.

“We are readying our boys,” Zelenskiy stated in a late Thursday video. We await our partners’ weaponry delivery. We are advancing victory.”

Russian bombardment of Kherson killed two individuals, officials claimed.

Ukrainian officials are focusing on the vast rebuilding effort and pressure from allies to fight corruption away from the battlefield.

In talks in Washington, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal pledged to account for every dollar of U.S. aid and start reconstruction this year.

“Continuous, ironclad and unprecedented support” from the US was appreciated.

Shmyhal and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated Kyiv needs $14 billion this year.

He said Ukraine had taken more anti-corruption actions in the past year than in many preceding years.

Ukrainian politicians want NATO membership, which Moscow rejects.

“There is no alternative to Ukraine’s accession to NATO,” Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov told a Black Sea security conference.