2,500 Russian attacks per day in Ukraine’s Donetsk region

DONETSK REGION, Ukraine (Reuters) – Russia is firing 1,500 to 2,500 shells and rockets at Ukraine’s war-torn Donetsk region every day and targeting critical infrastructure to make it harder for people to live there in winter, its governor said. Told Reuters.

The eastern province, 57% of which is under Russian control, has been at the forefront of the war since 2014, when Russia-backed proxies captured the region’s capital, also known as Donetsk, as well as several other large cities. .

As Russia launches a full-scale invasion in 2022, it is here that the bloodiest and longest fighting of the war has taken place.

“The enemy shells (the area) 1,500 to 2,500 times a day,” Governor Vadim Fylashkin said in an interview Friday. He said he believed Moscow was still aiming to capture the entire region.

“The enemy fire is so intense, so heavy, almost every day.”

The governor said the Kurakhov power plant, one of the few remaining large-scale sources of electricity generation in the region, was forced to shut down a week earlier due to Russian shelling. He said that this is part of a broader campaign.

“The enemy is trying to destroy critical infrastructure objects to make it difficult for people to live in the area in winter.”

The town of Avdiivka, home to the largest coking plant in Europe and the target of a massive Russian attack since October last year, is “95-98% gone,” Fylashkin said.

“The enemy dropped (last month) about 200 guided aerial bombs on Avdiivka alone. They are completely destroying it,” he said.

Local officials say the number of civilians in the town has dropped to less than 1,000. Fylashkin said he was appealing to survivors to leave for their own safety.

After a glide bomb recently fell on an apartment block in the border town of New York, it took 10 days to clear the ruins by hand and recover the bodies of five residents, because the shelling was too intense to bring in machinery. .

“As soon as we started bringing cranes and digging equipment to help the people, the enemy started shelling.”

A tall, baritone figure dressed in black and carrying a pistol, he had a background in law enforcement before serving as deputy governor of Donetsk since 2019.

After the invasion began, he says he personally participated in about 10 evacuation operations from the city of Volnovakha until the Russians captured it less than a month after the invasion.

“There were some moments when I didn’t think we’d make it out of there,” he recalled after the interview.

(Reporting by Max Hunder; Editing by Tom Balmforth)

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