Ukraine says it has downed warplanes amid Russian push

Russian forces are pushing hard against more Ukrainian towns and villages in eastern and southeastern Ukraine, Kyiv officials say.

Despite Russia’s apparent offensive momentum on the ground, Ukraine said it has shot down 13 Russian warplanes this month, including three on Thursday, as the Kremlin’s forces pushed forward.

With the full-scale war into its third year, Russian forces have been bludgeoning some Ukrainian defensive positions into submission, deploying overwhelming amounts of artillery and troop numbers in an effort to punch through defensive lines at targeted points.

Although Russia’s gains have been small, slow and costly, Ukraine does not have enough reservists and has a severe shortage of artillery shells as the supply of military aid from its allies has waned.

The Russian army is trying to seize the towns and villages of Tonenke, Orlivka, Semenivka, Berdychi and Krasnohorivka in the eastern Donetsk region, Ukraine’s army chief, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said on social media.

Those are places where Ukrainian military officials had said they would form a new line of defence after Ukrainian troops pulled out of Avdiivka on February 17.

In the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, Russian forces are focusing on retaking Verbove and Robotyne, towns that Ukraine won back in a counteroffensive in 2023, Syrskyi said.

Syrskyi, who was appointed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to lead the country’s military on February 8, accused some of his commanders of making “miscalculations” in assessing the enemy and taking countermeasures.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s defence ministry said that its forces shot down three Russian Su-34 jets overnight.

That made a total of 11 warplanes, including an early warning and control A-50 plane, that Ukraine claims to have downed since February 17, and 13 in February - the highest monthly tally, it said, since October 2022.

“The enemy has increased its air presence in the east. Our top military leadership reacted accordingly,” air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said on television.

Eight Ukrainian civilians, including a six-year-old girl, were killed, and at least 12 people were wounded in the southeast over the previous 24 hours, the Ukrainian president’s office said on Thursday.