Separatist news websites in eastern Ukraine reported that Russian gunmen belonging to the mercenaries of the Wagens company took control of the Vohlherska Power Plant, the second largest power station in Ukraine and located in the east of the country, while the Ukrainian army said that its forces renewed the bombing of the Antonov Bridge to cut off supplies to the Russian army in Kherson Province in southern Ukraine.
And news websites affiliated with the separatists in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine published pictures showing that mercenaries of the Wagner company were in front of the administrative building of the Vohlherska power plant, the largest coal-fired power plant in Ukraine, which is 50 km northeast of Donetsk.
🚨 #ALERT 🇺🇦🇷🇺|
#Russia's PMC Wagner mercenaries now control Uglegorsk Plant.
🇩🇰 it's #Ukraine's 2nd largest thermal plant.
Reason Wagner are here & not regular Russian Army is because they were chasing bounty on #Danish volunteers who were part of Ukrainian defense of the plant pic.twitter.com/pxVrdl4k58
— Terror Alarm (@terror_alarm) July 26, 2022
The German news agency stated that it was not able to verify this information, while other reports indicated that fighting has continued around the site of the disputed station between Russian forces and separatists on the one hand and Ukrainian forces since the end of last May.
British intelligence
British military intelligence said in its statement today, Wednesday, that Wagner's forces made tactical progress on the battle front in the Donbass region, near the Vohlherska station, in light of the withdrawal of some Ukrainian forces from the area.
Latest Defense Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 27 July 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/11Xt2JqVi1
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/Edi1d3H1Yj
— Ministry of Defense 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) July 27, 2022
The Ukrainian General Staff did not mention any information about the power plant in its evening report on the situation on the ground, but only talked about fighting around Semiheria, located a little to the west of the station.
The morning report spoke of air attacks on Ukrainian sites in the region.
In its attack on eastern and southern Ukraine, Russian forces aim to control vital infrastructure such as power plants and nuclear plants.
The General Staff report stated that Ukrainian soldiers had managed to repel attacks east of the line from Seversk via Solidar to Bakhmut, as well as successful defense operations along other parts of the front in Donetsk and neighboring Kharkiv.
Antonov Bridge
On the southern Kherson front, the Ukrainian army said today that its forces had renewed the bombing of the Antonov Bridge, which is a supply line for Russian forces in the area occupied by Moscow since the first weeks of the war, which erupted on February 24.
Ukrainian forces targeted the bridge 4 times in the last week, and say that destroying it will leave the Russian forces without any supplies from Crimea, which will give the process of liberating Kherson, as he described it, a great impetus.
And he showed a circulating picture of the bridge, and it was separated into two parts at one of the targeted points after the Ukrainian bombing.
An image showing the Antonov Bridge in the Kherson region, which was separated into two parts after Ukrainian bombing (communication sites)
The facility is one of the largest Ukrainian bridges, and the bridge is seen as one of the most important strategic gains for the Russian forces in southern Ukraine, given its large size and its ability to supply large vehicles and military equipment of any size.
The Russian forces took control of the city of Kherson after crossing the Antonov Bridge on March 1.
Kharkiv Front
On the Kharkiv front in northeastern Ukraine, Al-Jazeera correspondent reported that strong explosions were heard in the country's second largest city at dawn today, Wednesday, minutes after the sirens sounded in the province.
The Al Jazeera team camera monitored the moment the Ukrainian air defenses launched their anti-missiles to intercept the Russian projectiles.
The governor of Kharkiv said that the Russian bombing targeted the city's industrial district, injuring at least 6 people who were receiving the necessary treatment.
It should be noted that after 4 months of war between Russia and Ukraine, Moscow captured Lugansk province, which is one of the two provinces that make up the Donbass region, but it is still far from capturing the other province, Donetsk.
But its forces have already captured areas outside the Donbass, especially in the Zaporozhye (south) and Kherson provinces, and continue to launch missile strikes on cities in the Odessa and Mykolaiv (south) provinces.