Russia hits Ukraine with missiles, drones as Xi departs

Dan Peleschuk and Sergiy Chalyi | March 23, 2023

Russian drones have attacked Ukrainian cities and missiles blasted an apartment block, but a months-long ground assault on the eastern town of Bakhmut could be stalling in the face of fierce resistance.

Russian forces unleashed a wave of air strikes in the north and south of Ukraine as President Vladimir Putin bid farewell on Wednesday to Chinese leader Xi Jinping following a two-day visit to Moscow by his fellow autocrat and “dear friend”.

But staunch resistance by Ukrainian defenders in Bakhmut, the site of Europe’s deadliest infantry battle since World War II, led British military intelligence to believe Russia’s assault on the town could be running out of steam.

There was still a danger, however, that the Ukrainian garrison in Bakhmut could be surrounded, Britain’s defence ministry said in its intelligence update on Wednesday.

Ukraine’s military General Staff agreed that Russia’s offensive potential in Bakhmut was declining.

In a show of defiance, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office released a video of him handing out medals to troops it said were near the Bakhmut front line.

Bakhmut has become a key objective for Moscow, which sees the town as a stepping stone toward completing its conquest of the eastern Donbas region.

“The enemy continues to conduct offensive operations, suffering major casualties, losing significant amount of weapons and military equipment,” the General Staff of the Ukraine Army said in a Thursday morning report.

“Ukrainian defenders have been repelling numerous round-the-clock enemy attacks in the vicinities of Bakhmut, Bohdanivka, and Predtechyne,” it said, adding that numerous settlements near the line of contact were shelled.

The Ukraine military said 660 Russian troops, 13 tanks, one air defence system and 11 armoured personnel carriers were destroyed in a past day.

Reuters could not verify the battlefield report.

During Wednesday night, air raid sirens blared across the capital Kyiv and parts of northern Ukraine, and the military said it had shot down 16 of 21 Iranian-made Shahed suicide drones.

Firefighters battled a blaze in two adjacent residential buildings in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, where officials said at least one person was killed and 33 wounded by a twin missile strike.

In Rzhyshchiv, a riverside town south of Kyiv, at least eight people were killed and seven injured after a drone struck two dormitories and a college, regional police chief Andrii Nebytov said.

“This must not become ‘just another day’ in Ukraine or anywhere else in the world,” Zelenskiy tweeted, along with a video of security camera footage showing a building exploding.

“The world needs greater unity and determination to defeat Russian terror faster and protect lives.”

International groups estimate rebuilding Ukraine will cost $US411 billion ($A611 billion) – 2.6 times Ukraine’s 2022 gross domestic product.

Hosting Xi in Moscow this week was Putin’s grandest diplomatic gesture since he ordered the invasion of neighbouring Ukraine 13 months ago and became a pariah in the West.

The two men referred to each other as “dear friend”, promised economic co-operation, condemned the West and described relations as the best they have ever been.

Xi departed telling Putin: “Now there are changes that haven’t happened in 100 years. When we are together, we drive these changes.”

“I agree,” Putin said.

But the public remarks were notably short of specifics, and during the visit Xi had almost nothing to say about the Ukraine war, beyond that China’s position was “impartial”.

The White House urged Beijing to pressure Russia to withdraw and criticised the timing of the trip, just days after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin on war crimes charges.

China has proposed a peace plan for Ukraine that the West largely dismisses as a ploy to buy time for Putin to regroup his forces.

Ukraine says there can be no peace unless Russia withdraws from occupied land. 

Moscow says Kyiv must recognise territorial “realities” after its claim to have annexed almost a fifth of Ukraine.