LIVETEXT War in Ukraine, Day 796 | Over 130 Frontline Clashes in the Last 24 Hours. The region

In the last 24 hours, the Russian army bombed the Zaporozhye region 346 times, several residential buildings were destroyed and one person was injured, the head of the regional administration Ivan Fedorov announced on Telegram, reports Ukrainska Pravda.

“One man was wounded during an enemy attack on the Zaporizhia region. During the day, the invaders hit the Zaporozhye region 346 times. 10 settlements were under enemy fire,” the official said.

Russian forces launched missile strikes and 118 drone strikes on the region, Fedorov said, adding that 12 reports of house destruction had been received.

Despite the limited withdrawal of Ukrainian troops, Russian forces are unlikely to achieve “operationally significant penetration” in the area west of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region, according to an April 28 assessment by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US-based think tank, reports The Kyiv Independent.

Amid intense fighting, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Oleksandr Sîrski, announced on April 28 that Ukrainian troops had withdrawn from the villages of Berdychi, Semenivka and Novomykhailivka, west of occupied Avdiivka.

Sirski said Ukraine would rotate units targeting the area in an effort to “restore combat capability” and combat soldier fatigue along the front.

Despite the Ukrainian withdrawals, ISW notes that without additional Russian troops to counter Ukraine’s anticipated rotations, Russia’s ability to make further rapid tactical advances in the area will likely be limited.

“The arrival of Ukrainian reinforcements and additional materiel will force the Russian command to either accept that a wider or deeper penetration is unlikely in the near term, or commit additional reserves to the area to continue to pursue tactical gains,” the report states ISW.

American specialists note that the Ukrainian withdrawals from the three villages “have not yet facilitated the rapid achievement of Russian tactical gains.”

While Ukraine faces shortages of ammunition and air defense, Russia continues to intensify its attacks along the front, prioritizing the operation to capture the city of Ceasiv Yar.

In the last 24 hours, the defense forces of Ukraine announce that there have been 131 military clashes on the front, most of them in the direction of Avdiivka, reports Ukrainska Pravda.

According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Russian forces launched one missile and 82 airstrikes, carried out 108 attacks with multiple launch missile systems on the positions of Ukrainian troops and populated areas.

Russia will start conscripting reservists electronically starting November 1, 2024, and travel abroad will be restricted for those who are eligible for military service, writes Meduza, cited by Ukrainska Pravda.

According to the cited source, the Russian government has issued a decree that presents the rules for the operation of two electronic databases: the Unified Register of Military Records and the register of draft notices related to it.

The military registration register will be launched on November 1, 2024 and will contain detailed records of people eligible for military service.

Since 2023, there has been a record 30% increase in the number of Russian men aged 31 to 59 with disabilities, according to the British Ministry of Defence.

According to the cited source, the number of Russian men aged 31-59 with disabilities increased to 2.17 million from 1.67 million in the previous year.

The British Ministry stated that this increase could be caused by wounded soldiers at the front.

Donald Trump’s position on Ukraine “is not as black and white as some people think”, the Polish foreign minister said, Sky News reports.

The former US president, who is running for re-election this year, said he would not commit to providing Ukraine with defense assistance.

But Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said in an interview with media company Axel Springer that Trump had sent anti-tank missiles to Ukraine before the Russian invasion “when others weren’t.” He was referring to Javelin anti-tank missiles supplied by the US in 2018.

Sikorski also said Trump was “right to urge all of us in Europe to spend more on defense.”

He said he “didn’t hear any protest from Trump” once the $61 billion aid package for Ukraine was approved.

“So I hope Trump has seen that this opposition to helping Ukraine is actually not popular in the United States, that it hurts his chances [de a fi reales]”, he added.

Russian troops have attacked thermal power plants in Ukraine nearly 180 times since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, Dmytro Saharuk, chief executive of Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, said on Sunday.

Moscow has recently stepped up its missile and drone attacks against Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, launching large-scale attacks on energy facilities across the country on March 22, March 29, April 11, and April 27.

In April, DTEK said it needed at least $350 million to recover lost capacity caused by Russian attacks on thermal plants.

Saharuk told Hromadske Radio that DTEK is currently assessing the damage caused by the April 27 attack. Four stations were badly damaged, according to Saharuk.