Russian rockets struck towns and cities in eastern and southern Ukraine as Britain said it would send more weapons to Kyiv’s forces and Turkey pushed for a deal to lift a blockade of Ukrainian ports and allow millions of tonnes of grain to reach world markets.
Officials in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, said at least three people were killed and 23 hurt in the shelling of a residential district on Thursday and one person was found dead in the rubble of a school in Kramatorsk, a government-held city in the Donetsk region.
Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said the nearby city of Bakhmut was under constant shelling as Russian forces tried to break through Ukrainian lines and move towards Kramatorsk and Slovyansk, in their bid to seize control of the entire Donbas area, which comprises Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
“Russia is intentionally destroying our cities and towns. Do not expose yourself to danger — evacuate,” Mr Kyrylenko told Donetsk residents.
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Moscow said this week that is also wants to fully occupy swathes of southern Ukraine, where it already controls large areas but faces the threat of a counterattack by Ukrainian forces that are now using powerful western weapons to disrupt and destroy Russian supply lines, ammunition depots and command posts.
A day after the US said four more Himars long-range rocket systems would be part of its next delivery of military support to Kyiv, Britain said it would “supply scores of artillery guns, hundreds of drones and hundreds more anti-tank weapons to Ukraine in the coming weeks”.
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The British government said on Thursday that its pledge in June to provide £1 billion (€1.17 billion) in additional military aid would enable Ukraine “to go beyond their valiant defence against the illegal Russian invasion and mount offensive operations”.
Ukraine believes it can defeat and drive out Russian forces if it receives sufficient western support for long enough. Moreover, Kyiv’s defence intelligence agency said it believes Moscow’s military has already used up to 60 per cent of its high-precision missiles during nearly five months of all-out war and may struggle to replenish stocks due to sanctions.
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The Kremlin insists it can weather the financial fallout of the conflict that is expected to wipe up to 45 per cent off Ukraine’s gross domestic product this year and prompted the national bank in Kyiv to devalue the hryvnia currency by a quarter against the US dollar on Thursday.
Ukrainian central bank officials said the move would help stabilise the hryvnia and foreign exchange reserves that the country has been spending to prop up the flagging currency and came as Kyiv seeks a two-year freeze on repayment of its foreign debt.
Ukraine hopes to earn money from the export of some 20 million tonnes of grain now sitting in storage due to a Russian blockade of its Black Sea ports, which has prompted warnings of possible food shortages in parts of Africa and Asia.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he hoped a deal between his country, Ukraine, Russia and the United Nations could be signed “and begin to be implemented in the coming days”.
