Advance of Russian troops: citizens flee from Ocheretyne. Moscow shoots down ATACMS missiles

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The Russian offensive in Eastern Ukraine continues without interruption. Moscow attacked the outskirts of Kharkiv, targeting power plants. The Russian Ministry of Defense later announced the shooting down of four ATACMS missiles launched by Ukraine towards Crimea.

Fighting in Donetsk: citizens on the run

Ocheretyne was reached by Russian troops, as shown in images obtained by an Associated Press (AP) drone. The Russian army is advancing in the Donetsk region, reaching Kiev forces who are exhausted and without ammunition. The Ukrainian army has acknowledged that the Russians have captured a “foothold” in the village of Ocheretyne, which had a population of around 3,000 people before the war, however, Kiev says fighting continues despite a lack of artillery, bombs and drones .

The inhabitants fled the village, including a 98-year-old woman who, last week, walked almost ten kilometers alone, wearing a pair of slippers and leaning on a cane, until she reached the Ukrainian front line.

Not a single person can be seen in the images and there is not a single building in Ocheretyne that appears to have been left unscathed by the fighting. Most of the houses, apartment blocks and other buildings appear to have been irreparably damaged and many houses were reduced to piles of wood and bricks. A factory in the suburbs was also heavily damaged. AP images also show smoke coming from several houses and fires in at least two buildings.

Moscow attacks power plants in Kharkiv

In recent weeks, Russia has intensified attacks in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, in an attempt to target energy infrastructure of the region and terrorize its 1.3 million inhabitants.

Four people were injured and a two-story civilian building was damaged and set on fire overnight after Russian forces attacked Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine, using drones, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov announced on Saturday. The four people, including a 13-year-old boy, were injured by falling debris, Syniehubov said on the Telegram messaging app.

The Ukrainian army said Russia launched a total of 13 Shahed Drones against the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions in eastern Ukraine overnight, everyone ended up shot down by Ukrainian air defenses.

Syniehubov said that Russia also bombed Kharkiv on Friday, damaging residential buildings and starting a fire. An 82-year-old woman died and two men were injured.

US-supplied ATACMS missiles to Ukraine shot down over Crimea

The Russian Defense Ministry said in the early hours of Saturday that its forces shot down four ATACMS missiles US-supplied long-range weapons over the Crimean peninsula. The ministry did not provide further details.

Ukraine recently began using the missiles, secretly supplied by the USA, to target Russian-controlled areas, including a military airport in Crimea and another area east of the occupied city of Berdyansk. The information was confirmed by the USA in recent days.

Long requested by Ukrainian leaders, the new ATACMS missiles offer Ukraine a strike range twice as long (up to 300 kilometers) as the medium-range version of the weapons received by the US in October 2023.