Kiev denounced the intense Russian missile strikes that targeted Ukrainian cities yesterday, Thursday, pledging to stand firm and resist, while the Russian Wagner forces announced that they were fighting fierce battles in the eastern neighborhoods of Bakhmut before taking control of them.

The Ukrainian General Staff said that the Russian forces bombed several areas of the country yesterday with about 95 missiles, warning of the high level of the missile threat, and pointing to the continuation of attempts to besiege Bakhmut.

And it added - today, Friday - that its soldiers had repelled more than 100 attacks over the past 24 hours in Bakhmut, a city that has been the focus of the Russian forces' attack since August.

The Ukrainian forces said that they had confronted dozens of new Russian attacks, which targeted infrastructure facilities, especially in Zaporizhia County, in the southeast of the country.

The General Staff stated that its forces carried out 13 raids, targeting 6 locations of Russian forces and ammunition depots.


retaliation

The Russian Defense Ministry had said that its forces had fired more than 80 missiles at targets from eastern to western Ukraine and from north to south.

This ministry explained that the bombing was a retaliation for - what it says is - an infiltration operation carried out by Ukrainian gunmen last week in the Bryansk border region, which resulted in the death of two people.

Kiev denied the Russian accusations, and said that what happened may have been the result of an internal conflict in Russia.

Moscow stated that its missile attacks destroyed the sites of Ukrainian drones, and thwarted operations to transfer weapons to Ukraine, confirming the use of the Kinjal hypersonic missiles.


Bakhmut battles

The spokesman for the Ukrainian forces in the east, Serhiy Sherivati, announced that the Russian forces are continuing to try to launch attacks towards the center of Bakhmut, as well as in the surrounding towns, pointing to the continued shelling of missiles and artillery on the city.

For its part, the Russian Wagner militia admitted that it had fought fierce battles against the Ukrainian forces in the eastern part of the city of Bakhmut, before extending its full control over it.

A field commander in Wagner said that the Ukrainian forces had turned the buildings and streets in the neighborhood into defensive positions, as he put it.

Crucial months

Politically, CIA Director William Burns described the coming months as decisive on the battlefield in Ukraine.

Burns added - in a hearing of the House Intelligence Committee - that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not ready for any negotiations at the present time, stressing the need to meet Ukraine's long-term security needs.

In a related context, the strategic communications coordinator of the US National Security Council, John Kirby, said that his country is concerned about the possibility of the Russian president's unwillingness to negotiate an extension of the grain deal as the bombing continues in Odessa.


Poland plans

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Poland's plans to build a field military training center in western Ukraine would make it a party to the conflict.

Zakharova added that this implicates Poland and makes it a direct participant in the Ukrainian conflict.

She also said that it is clear that the talk is about Warsaw's intention to increase the size of the Polish forces that were previously announced as the "Polish Volunteer Corps", which will be based in the center.