The message is clearer and stronger than ever. Saturday, February 4, President Zelensky acknowledged that the situation “is getting complicated” on the ground for his troops against the Russians, while Ukraine is again the target of intense bombardments. “We are again at such a moment. A moment when the occupier is mobilizing its forces more and more to break our defense”, affirmed the Head of State.
The areas concerned? “It’s very difficult now in Bakhmout, Vougledar, Lyman (in the East, editor’s note) and in other regions,” said Volodymyr Zelensky. Shortly before, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense had indicated that the Russian army “concentrates its main efforts on the conduct of offensive operations in the directions of Kupyansk, Lyman, Bakhmout, Avdiïvka and Novopavlivka”.
The Russians increased bombing and ground attacks in many localities on the eastern front line. kyiv, which fears a new major attack in the coming weeks, is impatiently awaiting the delivery of more powerful weapons promised by the West.
The bombardments have multiplied in the East
In the Donetsk region, “massive” artillery fire targeted Saturday morning Avdiivka, on the eastern front line, after Kramatorsk, another city much coveted by the Russians, was hit overnight by rockets, reported the Ukrainian authorities. In the past 24 hours, in the southern province of Zaporizhia alone, shells have fallen on “civilian infrastructure” located in the territories of 26 localities, according to the same sources.
Still at the epicenter of the fighting, an “assault of invaders” took place according to local authorities in the suburb of Bakhmout, before being repelled. “This week, the Russian occupation forces have made every effort to break through our defense and encircle Bakhmout,” the Defense Ministry said on Saturday (February 4th). Strikes also continued on Kherson, a major southern city taken and then abandoned by the Russians.
No attack in Russia with Western weapons
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz assured the newspaper Bild am Sonntag, This Sunday, February 5, that Western weapons would not be used for attacks on Russian territory. “There is a consensus on this point” with President Zelensky, he promised.
Several heavy tanks or longer range rockets are about to be sent to the Ukrainian army. Canada notably shipped on Saturday February 4 the first of the four German Leopard 2 tanks it promised to the country. Other European countries, such as Portugal, should also deliver Leopard 2s in the coming weeks, while London has promised 14 Challenger tanks.
The new aid of 2.2 billion American also includes rockets which could double the extent of the field of action of the Ukrainian strike force, up to 150 kilometers according to the Pentagon. France and Italy, meanwhile, are expected to deliver a MAMBA medium-range surface-to-air defense system in the spring to help Ukraine “defend against attacks by Russian drones, missiles and aircraft”.
The bodies of two repatriated British volunteers
The bodies of two Britons, Christopher Parry and Andrew Bagshaw, killed in Ukraine where they had gone as volunteers, were recovered during an exchange of prisoners between kyiv and Moscow. The return of the two men’s bodies came as part of an exchange of 116 Ukrainian prisoners and 63 Russians between Moscow and kyiv, Ukrainian authorities said.
Christopher Parry, 28, and Andrew Bagshaw, 48, were killed while attempting a humanitarian evacuation from the town of Soledar, the scene of intense clashes in early January and largely destroyed in shelling, the family confirmed in late January by Christopher Parry, via the UK Foreign Office.