Deadly Russian attack rocks Odesa; Ukraine vows to defeat ‘lunatic’ Putin

At least 21 people are killed in one of the war’s worst assaults on the port city as Russia continues to make small battlefield gains.

Russian forces’ creeping momentum has continued for a fifth week after the fall of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine as the Russian command moved reservists from other parts of the front to press its advantage.

The villages of Tonenke and Nevelske, west of Avdiivka, fell to the Russian advance by Saturday.

In the same area, Russia’s Ministry of Defence claimed Orlivka three days later, and Russian forces seemed to be swallowing the village of Berdychi street by street.

“The enemy concentrated its main efforts in the Avdiivka direction and for several days in a row has been trying to break through the defence of our troops, defended by three brigades,” Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyii, said on Friday.

“Three brigades are being attacked by an army consisting of several divisions,” said Dmytro Kukharchuk, a Ukrainian battalion commander in the Avdiivka area. “The Russian troops are trying to create a 10-to-1 advantage.”