DONETSK REGION, Ukraine (AP) — Russia is firing between 1,500 and 2,500 shells and rockets a day at Ukraine’s war-torn Donetsk region and targeting critical infrastructure so citizens can stay there in winter, its governor told Reuters.
The Eastern Province, of which 57% is occupied by Russia, has been at the forefront of the war since 2014, when Russian-backed representatives seized the region’s capital, also known as Donetsk, as well as many other major cities.
Since Russia announced a full-scale invasion in 2022, this has been the scene of many of the war’s toughest and most protracted battles.
“The enemy shells (the region) from 1,500 to 2,500 times a day,” Governor Vadym Filashkin said in an interview on Friday, adding he believed Moscow was still aiming to capture the entire region.
“The enemy bombardment is so dense, so intense, almost every day. “
The governor said the Kurakhove power plant, one of the few large-scale power generation resources in the region, was forced to shut down a week ago due to Russian shelling. He said it’s part of a larger campaign.
“The enemy is trying to destroy critical infrastructure objects so that people find it difficult to remain in the region in winter.”
Filashkin said the city of Avdiivka, home to Europe’s largest coke plant and the target of a major Russian attack since October last year, had “95 to 98 percent gone. “
“The enemy dropped about two hundred guided aerial bombs on Avdiivka alone (last month). They are completely destroying it,” he said.
The local government says the number of civilians in the city has fallen to less than 1,000. Filashkin said he implored those who stayed behind to leave for their own safety.
After a bomb recently hit a building site in the border town of Niu-York, it took 10 days to clear the ruins by hand and recover the bodies of five residents, as the shelling was too intense to bring in machinery.
“As soon as we brought cranes and bulldozers to help the people, the enemy shelled. “
A giant character with a baritone voice, dressed in black and with a holstered pistol, he received law enforcement education before serving as deputy governor of Donetsk since 2019.
After the invasion began, he says he personally participated in a dozen evacuations from the city of Volnovakha until it was captured by the Russians less than a month after the invasion began.
“There were several moments when I thought we weren’t going to make it,” he recalled after the interview Rappler. com.