On Thursday, Kyiv announced a Western military presence in its territory and the restoration of dozens of towns from the grip of the Russians, while Moscow reported seizing evidence of a mass escape of Ukrainian fighters.

Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov told the Financial Times that Ukraine's allies have sent military representatives to the country to monitor the flow of their donated arms, and that it is in his country's interest to keep all the military equipment provided by Western allies.

He added that Ukraine is using NATO software obtained in 2019 to monitor the destination and use of Western-supplied weapons accessible to NATO allies.

The Ukrainian minister said there was no chance of stealing heavy weapons systems such as 155mm Howitzer or missile systems supplied by the United States to Ukraine.

Yesterday, Thursday, the Russian "Novosi" news agency quoted the leadership of the forces of the so-called Luhansk People's Republic loyal to Moscow that the first "M777" howitzer with a caliber of 155 mm had recently fallen into the hands of its members.

The separatists showed a video clip containing various types of weapons, including a howitzer, without indicating the place and time of its filming, and it was not possible to verify the authenticity of the video from an independent source.

Zdobyta amerykańska 155-mm haubica M777 została zademonstrowana przez Milicję Ludową LPR.

pic.twitter.com/jXbm9VI3mk

— Michał Krupa (@MGKrupa) July 14, 2022

Russian bombing

On the ground, Al-Jazeera correspondent in the Donbas region, quoting medical sources, reported that 4 people were killed and about 10 others were injured in Russian shelling that targeted residential neighborhoods in Donetsk Province (eastern Ukraine).

Pavel Kirilink, the Ukrainian governor of Donetsk, accused the Russian forces of intensifying their strikes on civilian targets as part of a plan to control the entire province, noting that one of its main targets at this stage is the city of Sloviansk, he said.

In the city of Kharkiv (northeast), Al-Jazeera correspondent reported that there had been a series of powerful explosions as a result of shelling with 4 missiles, 3 of which hit the city and led to great destruction in various locations.

The head of the Military Administration, Oleg Senegubov, announced that the railway and an academy had been subjected to missile strikes, in addition to the bombing of a square near a school in the city's industrial zone, which resulted in material damage.

The governor of the province also announced that the Russian forces would continue to prevent the attempts of the Ukrainian forces from advancing towards their border areas, announcing at the same time that the Russian forces were trying to advance from the Azium region in the southeast of the province towards the Sloviansk region.

The Russian Defense Ministry also spoke of the killing of 200 Ukrainian soldiers in the bombing of Ukrainian sites in the city.

Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that a military headquarters in the city of Vinnitsa was targeted Thursday with "Kaliber" missiles, where a meeting was taking place between the leadership of the Ukrainian Air Force and representatives of foreign arms suppliers, which led to the killing of all of them.

In the Mykolaiv region (southeast of Ukraine), Al-Jazeera correspondent reported that the shelling had been renewed on Friday, and that dozens of missiles had landed in separate areas of the city.

Mayor of Mykolaiv confirmed that the Russian forces targeted the district today with 49 missile and artillery strikes that fell on the shipbuilding complex in the city, in addition to schools and private buildings.


Ukrainian novel

On the other hand, the Ukrainian Southern Operations Command confirmed that the headquarters of the Russian forces in Sneherivka, on the outskirts of Mykolaiv, were bombed at night.

She pointed out that the Ukrainian forces launched 4 air strikes, which she described as one minute, on Russian sites in Kherson, and that they were able to destroy an ammunition depot there.

In Kherson (central-south), the city district council announced the restoration of a total of 44 towns in the district that had been in the hands of the Russians.

The Ukrainian army had reported that its forces launched 4 night raids on Russian sites in Kherson, and destroyed an ammunition depot there.

Al-Jazeera correspondent reported that more than 10 explosions occurred this morning in the Mykolaiv region (southern Ukraine).

Al-Jazeera correspondent said that the sound of explosions was heard deep in the city, and plumes of smoke were seen rising from more than one place.

These explosions came hours after a nightly Russian bombing targeted the city, at a time when the Ukrainian army confirmed that its defenses had shot down a Russian missile.

In turn, the Ukrainian Southern Operations Command said that the headquarters of the Russian forces in Sneherivka, on the outskirts of Mykolaiv, was bombed at night.

mass escape

In a related context, the official Russian "TASS" agency published a statement by the Special Forces of the Russian Guard in Lugansk Province, saying that it had seized evidence of a mass escape of Ukrainian fighters.

The agency also quoted Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Municipal Council of the Zaporozhye Regional Administration, accusing the Ukrainian forces of deliberately setting fire to wheat fields in his region.

Also in the Russian-controlled Kherson province, Kirill Strimosov, deputy head of the provincial administration, accused Ukrainian forces of burning wheat fields.

And Russian media had published a video that it said showed a Ukrainian helicopter flying at a low altitude over wheat fields, firing incendiary shells at them.