Ukraine lost more ground in its ongoing war with Russia, when another village fell in the east.
Kremlin forces reportedly captured the village of Vovche in Donetsk Oblast in a fierce and bloody battle Friday. However, Ukrainian officials still have yet to confirm Vovche is now under Russian control.
An official told Ukrainian news site Liga.net that Vovche, as well as the nearby village of Progres, both fell to Moscow’s troops.
Reports claim Russian troops are trying to make their way about 20 miles further west, to the town of Pokrovsk and about 35 miles further south, to the community of Kurakhove, where they hope to further penetrate Ukrainian defenses.
President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the ongoing fighting in the Pokrovsk sector Friday, but did not address the losses at Vovche and Progres specifically.
“Everything necessary will be done to strengthen our positions and our capability to inflict significant losses on the occupiers,” he assured the nation.
Russia’s battlefield successes came as a report found the Kremlin has come up with a new tactic for detecting Ukrainian air defenses — cheap drones.
Moscow is using low-cost, unmanned aerial vehicles as decoys to lure Ukrainian into firing at them, revealing the location of defense batteries.
The gerryrigged aircraft can be made using plywood and plastic foam, and are outfitted with Ukrainian mobile phones that can send images back to the Russian military, which uses the information to wage long-range attacks against Ukraine’s air defenses with heavier weapons.
Russia has used the two new drone models in five attacks within the last two to three weeks, said Andriy Cherniak, a military spy agency spokesperson.
It a heartwarming moment Saturday, Zelensky and his wife, Olga, visited the National Specialized Children’s Hospital, meeting with some of the young patients being treated there.
The hospital was struck by Russian bombs earlier this month, forcing the children to flee.
“Despite everything, the institution is resuming its normal operations and rebuilding its strength after the Russian attack,” Zelensky wrote on X. “I thank everyone who is helping the hospital, those who were on site after the Russian missile hit, clearing the rubble, and supporting the children.”
Separately, authorities arrested an 18-year-old gunman they say is responsible for last week’s brutal broad daylight assassination of former Ukrainian lawmaker Iryna Farion on the streets of the western city of Lviv.
Viacheslav Zinchenko was detained on suspicion of murdering Farion, 60, on Thursday.
Farion, a far-right politician described in some reports as a “controversial” figure, survived the initial shooting, but died in a hospital a short time later.
She was perhaps best known for promoting the Ukrainian language over Russian.
Zinchenko, who was enrolled in a local university and studying law, was arrested in Dnipro on Thursday, the Kyiv Independent reported.
The city is nearly 600 miles east of Lviv and in an area that has seen significant fighting. His father is on the frontlines, fighting in the ongoing conflict with Russian invaders.
The teen reportedly follows a number of far-right social media pages, and is suspected of having possible links to Russian neo-Nazi groups.
Zelensky lauded the action’s of the country’s security forces in a Telegram post.
“I am grateful to each and every one of them who added more facts to the picture of the crime every day and brought the full truth closer,” he wrote.
With Post wires
