Zelensky blasts 'crazy’ attacks as he prepares for Kherson strike

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY accused Russia of craziness” in its attempts to capture the eastern town of Bakhmut. Severe fighting is taking place in the area surrounding the town which sits in the Donetsk region of Ukraine and has been targeted by Russian troops for months.

- Tom Davidson

Kyiv troops are poised to advance on the strategic southern key city of Kherson, but attacks in the eastern region are continuing in force, the Ukrainian president said.

Seizing Bakhmut, which sits on a main road leading to the Ukrainian-held cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, would be a symbolic victory for Russia. It had a pre-war population of about 70,000.

“This is where the craziness of the Russian command is most evident,’ Mr Zelensky said in his nightly address yesterday. Day after day, for months, they are driving people to their deaths there, concentrating the highest level of artillery strikes.”