Pictures posted on the Internet showed explosions lighting up the night sky of Melitopol, with traces of aircraft smoke.
The city of Melitopol represents the base of the Russian administration in Zaporizhia, and it is one of the five Ukrainian cities that Russia announced its annexation.
The exiled head of the city of Melitopol confirmed the occurrence of explosions there, while the Russian news agency TASS quoted officials appointed by Moscow as saying that a railway station was damaged, in addition to the power outage in the city and nearby villages.
Melitopol is a railway logistics hub used by Russian forces in southern Ukraine, and is part of the land bridge connecting Russia to Crimea.
There is no information about the weapons that Ukraine may have used in the attack.
Melitopol is located in the south of the Zaporizhia nuclear plant, which was visited by the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency of the United Nations on Wednesday, reiterating the call for the establishment of a safe zone there.
Put the Russian forces on the ground
- Ukrainian forces have clung to their defensive positions since their last major advance nearly five months ago.
- Moscow launched attacks during this period using hundreds of thousands of reservists and thousands of fighters recruited by the Wagner private military company.
- As spring enters, questions remain about how long the Russians can continue to attack Ukrainian territory and when the Ukrainians will respond.
- There are clear signs that the Russian offensive is weakening, as the average number of attacks launched by Russia per day on the front lines with Ukraine this month decreased from 124 attacks during the period from the first to the seventh of March to 69 attacks in the past seven days.
- The Ukrainian General Staff said that the number of attacks launched by Russia on Wednesday amounted to 57.
- The head of the Russian private military “Wagner” group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, acknowledged on Wednesday that the battle for control of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut had severely damaged his forces as well as the Ukrainian side.
- Bakhmut, a small city in eastern Ukraine that Russia has targeted for months, is witnessing fierce fighting and great destruction in what has become the longest and bloodiest battle of the war.
Spring counterattack
- British military intelligence reported Wednesday that the Ukrainians had succeeded in forcing the Russians away from the main supply route to Bakhmut and that Russian attacks in the city were decreasing.
- A few days ago, Ukraine received its first batch of Western battle tanks, to be used in a counterattack against Russian forces as the cold weather ended.
- The RIA news agency reported that Moscow responded by sending hundreds of its new and upgraded tanks to its forces.
- Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday that Moscow’s announcement of its intention to deploy tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus will force NATO to assess the seriousness of the situation.
- The Russian Ministry of Defense reported on Wednesday that the Russian Strategic Missile Forces have begun scheduled exercises involving the Yaris intercontinental ballistic missile systems.
- The Ministry of Defense added in a statement: “More than 3,000 military personnel and about 300 pieces of equipment in total participated in the exercises.”
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