Russian Hospital Fires Spark Panic as Shelling Draws Near
Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) – Russian shelling hit more civilian targets in Ukraine, igniting a hospital in one city and damaging five apartment buildings, local officials said on Tuesday, as Ukrainian authorities reported a build-up of Moscow troops in eastern areas before Kyiv suspected an imminent new offensive by Russia around the anniversary of its invasion.
A hospital in the northeastern city of Vovchansk caught fire as a result of shelling late Monday, regional Ukrainian emergency services reported.
The shelling caused several fires in the city, including at its two-story municipal hospital, the state emergency medical service in the northeastern Kharkiv region said in an online statement.
Rescue workers evacuated eight civilians from the site before dousing the fire, which claimed no lives, authorities said.
Vovchansk is in the Kharkiv region, which was occupied by Russia after its full-scale invasion began on February 24, and then recaptured by Ukraine during a counter-offensive last year.
The anticipated Russian push may be aimed at recapturing areas Moscow lost in this counter-offensive.
Ukrainian officials say they expect the new push to take place in eastern and southern Ukraine as the Kremlin is eager to secure areas it has illegally annexed and where it claims to welcome its rule.
Russian forces are “regrouping” as they attempt to breach Ukrainian lines in five areas in the east and north-east of the country, the Ukrainian military reported on Tuesday.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Moscow is focusing its efforts on the cities of Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Novopavlivka in the eastern Donetsk region and Kupiansk in Kharkiv province.
In the Donetsk region, Russian forces also continued shelling Vuhledar, a mining town that was one of Moscow’s top targets, Ukraine’s presidential office said. In the city, which had a population of 14,000 before the war, five residential buildings were destroyed, the office said.
According to regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, Donetsk province has seen a significant influx of Russian troops in recent days.
“The transfer of Russian army units continues day and night. The (Russian) shelling is increasing, the pressure from the Russians is increasing every day,” Kyrylenko said on Ukrainian television.
Russia is also preparing for a major offensive in the eastern Luhansk region just north of Donetsk, local governor Serhii Haidai said in a televised address.
The number of Russian attacks in the province rose “dramatically” on Monday and overnight, he said.
“The occupiers are looking for weak points and have brought a lot of equipment and thousands of soldiers to the front lines,” Haidai said.
A dozen towns and villages in the northeastern Kharkiv region have also come under Russian fire in the past 24 hours, the presidential office said.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed concern about an increase in fighting towards the end of the winter.
The prospects for peace “continue to shrink” and “the chances of further escalation and bloodshed continue to grow,” he said in a speech late Monday.
Setbacks on the battlefield have embarrassed the Kremlin, and Russian President Vladimir Putin is keen to solidify public support for the war. Securing Kremlin rule in the industrial region bordering Russia in the east of the Donbass is likely to be a key objective.
However, some military analysts are skeptical about Russia’s ability to launch a major new offensive in the coming weeks. Ukraine and Russia are both still training their new troops and stockpiling weapons.
The UK Ministry of Defense said in an assessment on Tuesday that Russia “needs understaffed, inexperienced units to achieve unrealistic goals due to political and professional pressures”.
“Russian leaders are likely to continue to call for far-reaching progress,” she added. “It remains unlikely that Russia will be able to build up the forces needed to materially influence the outcome of the war in the coming weeks.”
Michael Kofman, an American military analyst and director of Russian studies at CAN, a research organization in Arlington, Virginia, tweeted Monday that it was unclear how large an offensive by Russia could be.
He added: “But I suspect it might prove underwhelming as it’s mainly focused on Donbass.”
Meanwhile, the shelling kept Ukraine’s civilian population under pressure in some areas of the country.
Russia has launched six rocket and two dozen air strikes and 75 shell attacks on civilian targets in Kharkiv, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson in the past 24 hours, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said in a statement on Tuesday.
About 60,000 households in Marhanets were left without water after Russian shelling near the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant cut power to a local pumping station, authorities said.
Mykola Lukaschuk, head of the Dnepropetrovsk regional council, accused Russian forces of firing heavy artillery and multiple rocket launchers at towns and villages near the power plant, Europe’s largest, overnight.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Susie Blann, The Associated Press
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