Two rescue workers were killed by Russian attacks in western Ukraine on February 27, local authorities said, as Ukrainian and Russian forces remained locked in fierce combat in the east and northeast.
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The whole of Ukraine was under an air-raid alert for about an hour in the morning as Russian forces used Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones in the attack.
In the western city of Khmelnytskiy, a Russian drone attack killed a member of the rescue services, while a second one died later on February 27 after being wounded in the overnight shelling of the city, said Serhiy Hamaliy, the head of the regional military administration.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian military said its forces had shot down 11 out of 14 drones overnight.
In Kyiv, the head of the capital’s military administration, Serhiy Popko, said nine drones were destroyed. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damages.
Russian troops conducted 81 offensive operations against Ukrainian defenders in Bakhmut, Avdiyivka, and Shaktarsk in the Donetsk region, and in Kupyansk, in the Kharkhiv region, over the past 24 hours, the General Staff reported in its daily bulletin.
Russian forces have been relentlessly attacking Bakhmut since last summer. Moscow redoubled its efforts to take the city at the start of this year, launching a fresh offensive to take the city.
Analysts say that capturing the city, which has been almost completely destroyed in the fighting, would bear little strategic significance for Russia, but that Moscow would seek to attach symbolic significance to it in an effort to boost soldiers’ morale.
The General Staff on February 27 also reported “mass desertions” among the Russian conscripts sent out to the front line.
“Russian deputy commanders tasked with political work are actively attempting to prevent desertion among Russian servicemen,” the General Staff said. The information about mass desertion among Russian troops could not be independently confirmed.
The Ukrainian Air Force carried out four air strikes on Russian troops and equipment, destroying a Russian SU-25 war plane, the General staff said, without specifying where the plane was destroyed.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his regular video address on February 26 that the Ukrainian military had shot down a Russian plane in Donetsk near Avdiyivka.
Zelenskiy also spoke about liberating Crimea, illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, in a separate message in which he said that this would put a “historical end” to Moscow’s attempts to disrupt life in Ukraine.
“On February 26, we celebrate the Day of Resistance to the Occupation of Crimea and Sevastopol,” Zelenskiy said.
He noted that Russia’s aggression began with the seizure of Crimea in 2014, saying “it is logical” that by liberating Crimea, Ukraine will put a historical end to any attempts by Russia to break the lives of Ukrainians.
The U.S. State Department issued a statement on February 26 about the status of Crimea, saying Russia seized the peninsula nine years ago in a clear violation of international law and of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“The United States welcomes the efforts of Ukraine’s Crimea Platform to focus global attention on Russia’s continued occupation,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in the statement. “The United States does not and never will recognize Russia’s purported annexation of the peninsula. Crimea is Ukraine.”
Meanwhile, Zelenskiy fired a senior military commander but gave no reason for the move.
In a one-line decree published on the website of the Office of the President on February 26, Zelenskiy announced the dismissal of Eduard Moskalyov as commander of the joint forces of Ukraine.
Moskalyov had been in the post since March 15, 2022.
