Ukraine war: Zelenskyy says he won't give up 'a single centimetre' to Russia in east
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his forces would not yield "a single centimetre" in battles for the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, while Russian-installed officials said Ukrainian forces were moving into a southern town with tanks.
The focal points of the conflict in the industrial region of Donetsk are around the towns of Bakhmut, Soledar and Avdiivka, which have seen the heaviest fighting since Russian forces invaded Ukraine in late February.
"The activity of the occupiers remains at an extremely high level - dozens of attacks every day," Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address late on Tuesday.
"They are suffering extraordinarily high losses. But the order remains the same - to advance on the administrative boundary of Donetsk region. We will not yield a single centimetre of our land," he said.
The region is one of four Russia said it annexed in September. Fighting had been going on there between the Ukrainian military and Russian proxy forces since 2014, the same year Russia annexed Crimea in the south.
A Russian-installed mayor in the town of Snihurivka, east of the southern city of Mykolaiv, was cited by Russia's RIA news agency as saying residents had seen tanks and that fierce fighting was going on.
"They got into contact during the day and said there were tanks moving around and, according to their information, heavy fighting on the edge of the town," the mayor, Yuri Barabashov, said, referring to the residents.
"People saw this equipment moving through the streets in the town centre," he said.
Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russian-installed administration in the Kherson region, said on the Telegram messaging service that Ukrainian forces had tried to advance on three fronts, including
Read more on euronews.com
