Russian Federation (RF) and Ukraine Armed Forces (UAF) units were locked in urban combat at a chain of flash points along the Donbas front, as official sources on both sides of the war were silent on earlier reports of a possible hit of an RF warship by a UAF missile, news articles and official statements said Saturday, May 7.
The heaviest fighting was reported around the east Donbas town Severodonetsk. According May 7 reports on state-controlled RF news platforms, RF infantry cleared the residential area Rubizhne and were battling with UAF defenders in the village’s industrial sector. The Moscow statements also claimed RF troops captured the adjacent village Voevodivka.
Severodonetsk is, per RF official statements, one of the major objectives of the Kremlin’s ongoing Donbas offensive. UAF defensive positions in Rubizhne and Voevodivka control approach routes to Severodonetsk. RF and UAF units according to both sides’ accounts also exchanged heavy fire but did not attempt to attack in the towns Lysychansk, Popasnay, Nizhny, Horlivka and Orekhovo.
In the northern Izium sector, nearly a week’s of battles for crossings of the Siviersky Donets River appeared likewise to have become static, with both RF and UAF sources reporting fighting around the town of Lyman, but no major troop movements.
A limited UAF offensive in the north-east of Kharkiv region continued, with RF sources announcing they had abandoned the villages Tsirkuny, Cherkassky Tishki and Liptsy; and UAF sources reporting . Retreating RF troops blew up bridges in Tsirkuny and Ruska Tishki, the censor.net.ua Ukrainian news platform said.
A Ukrainian Army General Staff (AGS) May 7 statement said UAF troops over the past 24 hours claimed they destroyed 12 tanks, 27 infantry fighting vehicles, 7 artillery systems, 1 artillery rocket system, 1 anti-aircraft system, 8 trucks, and 17 reconnaissance drones. Most of the claimed RF losses were in the Izium/north-east Kharkiv sectors, the statement said.
A statement from Ukraine’s Donetsk regional defense command said that RF bombardments hit 44 homes and businesses in fifteen towns or villages over the past 24 hours. Kremlin troops reportedly used artillery rockets, tanks and heavy artillery in the strikes. Four civilians were reported injured, all in Lyman town, a Luhansk region police statement said.
Official sources on both sides were, on Saturday, absolutely silent on heavy social media and limited Ukrainian news agency reports from Friday, claiming that a Ukrainian anti-ship missile had hit and damaged an RF warship operating in the Black Sea near Zmiyniy Island.
In a Friday evening interview with Ukraine’s New24 television marathon program, Ukrainian Presidential Administration advisor Oleksiy Arestovych said that UAF intelligence was investigating the reports, and that he personally suspected no strike had taken place. Until the UAF formally confirms or denies the Friday missile launch, whether or not the attack took place will stay an open question, he said.
