Russian drones set fire to a hotel in a Ukrainian city on the Black Sea

KYIV, Ukraine – Russian drones hit the Black Sea city of Mykolaiv on Sunday morning, setting fire to a hotel and damaging energy infrastructure, the local Ukrainian governor said, as ammunition shortages continued to hamper Kiev’s troops in the more than two-year war. .

Vitaliy Kim, governor of Mykolaiv province in southern Ukraine, said Russian drones “severely damaged” a hotel in the capital of the same name, causing a fire that was later extinguished. Kim also reported that the attack damaged the city’s heat generation infrastructure, but did not provide details. He added that there were no casualties.

Russian state agency RIA said the attack on Mykolaiv targeted a shipyard where naval drones are assembled, as well as a hotel housing “English-speaking mercenaries” who fought for Kiev. The RIA report cited Sergei Lebedev, described as a coordinator of local pro-Moscow guerrillas. His claim could not be independently verified.

Also on Sunday morning, the Russian Defense Ministry said that 17 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight in four southwestern regions of the country. Three drones were intercepted near an oil depot in Lyudinovo, an industrial town about 230 kilometers (143 miles) north of the border with Ukraine, Governor Vladislav Shapsha said.

One of the Ukrainian drones damaged communications infrastructure in Russia’s southern province of Belgorod, which borders Ukraine, Governor Vyachaslav Gladkov said later on Sunday. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The Russian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said on Sunday that its forces had destroyed depots of ammunition and military equipment housed at three airports across Ukraine, including assault drones stored at the Kamyanka airfield in the east of the country. The ministry’s online update said the attacks occurred within the past 24 hours. There was no immediate comment from Kyiv.

Russian shelling on Saturday injured at least seven civilians across Ukraine overnight, according to Ukrainian officials. A 36-year-old woman was pulled alive from the rubble after Russian bombs destroyed her home on Sunday morning in the northeast region of Kharkiv, the local administration said. His 52-year-old neighbor was also rushed to hospital with a stomach injury, the administration said.

The Donetsk and Kharkiv regions have seen fierce clashes in recent weeks as Russian forces seek to make gains along the more than 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, while ammunition shortages increasingly cripple the Ukraine’s defenses.

Russian troops are “likely to make significant gains in the coming weeks” as Kiev awaits much-needed weapons from a massive US aid package to get to the front, a Washington-based think tank said.

In its latest operational assessment, the Institute for the Study of War said Moscow’s forces have opportunities to advance around Avdiivka, the eastern city they took in late February after grueling month-long fighting, and threaten neighboring Chasiv Yar. Its capture would give Russia control of a hill from which it can attack other important cities that form the backbone of Ukraine’s eastern defenses.

Despite this, the think tank assessed that none of these efforts by Moscow are likely to cause the collapse of Kiev’s defensive lines.

The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed on Sunday that Moscow troops had seized a village about 15 kilometers (9 miles) north of Avdiivka, days after the institute reported its likely capture on Thursday morning. That day’s assessment described Moscow’s gains as “relatively rapid, but still relatively marginal,” adding that Russian troops had advanced no more than 5 kilometers (3 miles) during the previous week.

US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he was immediately sending badly needed weapons to Ukraine as he signed into law a $95 billion war aid measure that also included assistance to Israel, Taiwan and other global hotspots.

The announcement marked the end of the long and painful battle with Republicans in Congress over urgently needed assistance to Ukraine, with Biden promising on Wednesday that US arms shipments would begin arriving in Ukraine within hours.

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