KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine’s defense ministry said on Wednesday that Russia was trying to increase the tempo of its offensive in the east of the country.
Defense Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk gave few details but said Moscow had carried out nearly 50 air strikes on Tuesday alone.
He also said Russian artillery fire and air strikes continued at regular intervals at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol where Ukraine’s last defenders in the southern port city were hiding.
“Russia’s military command is trying to increase the tempo of its offensive operations in eastern Ukraine,” Motuzyanyk told a briefing.
He said Russian strategic bombers had fired 18 rockets from the airspace over the Caspian Sea at targets in Ukraine “with the aim of damaging our country’s transport infrastructure.”
The ministry’s report on the military situation across Ukraine could not be immediately verified.
Russian troops have aimed their heaviest weapons into eastern and southern Ukraine after failing to capture Kyiv, the capital, in the early weeks of the war.
When asked about the situation at the Azovstal steel plant, Motuzyanyk said there was a Russian attempt to storm the plant. Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko said separately that fighting at the factory continued on Wednesday.
Asked about the situation at the steel plant, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “The order was openly given by the supreme commander (Russian President Vladimir Putin) to cancel the raid (of the plant). There was no raid.”
“We saw that there was an increase related to the fact that the fighters were taking up firing positions. These efforts are being suppressed so quickly, there is nothing more to say at this point,” he said.
