Kyiv troops facing strong Russian resistance in eastern Ukraine

YAMPIL, Ukraine: Behind the frontline near Kreminna, a strategically located Russian-controlled city in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv’s troops say they are facing a tough enemy.

“We fight them every day, in any weather. We attack in the direction of Kreminna, but they are not easy to defeat,” says a 24-year-old Ukrainian soldier, who goes by the call sign “Kulak” or “Fist”. “They are good, they are tough,” he tells AFP in Yampil, a village located some 30 kilometres (18 miles) west of Kreminna and recaptured by Ukrainian forces in late September.

The city in the eastern Lugansk region -- which Moscow claimed to have annexed along with three other Ukrainian regions -- has been the scene of intense fighting in recent days. “We had some successes on the Ukrainian side, but nothing huge. The enemy is not giving up,” Kulak says, smiling. For the past few days the region´s governor, Sergei Gaidai, has been posting encouraging -- if slightly contradictory -- messages on social media.

On Thursday, he wrote that Ukraine´s troops advanced 2.5 kilometres in the direction of Kreminna in a week. A day earlier, he said Russians had sent reinforcements to the area, while adding that the city could be re-taken early next year.

According to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russian forces “appear to be preparing for a decisive effort” in the Lugansk region. Yampil looks like a hive of wartime activity.

Military vehicles criss-cross the main street of this largely destroyed village. There are nearly as many soldiers as there are civilians. Meanwhile, Ukraine said it repelled a night-time drone attack from Russia, a day after Moscow launched a new wave of missile strikes in the run-up to New Year celebrations. Ukraine´s air force said on Friday morning that Russia´s overnight assault was made with “Iranian-made kamikaze drones”. A total of 16 drones were launched from the southeastern and northern directions and they were “all” destroyed by Ukraine´s air defence, it said. The presidency said Ukraine “withstood” the new drone attacks, which targeted infrastructure. In the capital Kyiv, city authorities announced an air alert shortly after 2:00 am local time.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko later said seven drones had targeted the capital. Two were shot down “on approach” and five over the city. There were no casualties, but falling debris damaged windows in two buildings in southwestern Kyiv, he added.

One of the drones hit a four-storey administrative building, starting a fire that was later extinguished, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the presidential office. The drone attack came after a barrage of Russian missiles battered Ukraine on Thursday morning, with blasts reported across the vast country, from the northeastern city of Kharkiv to Lviv in the west near the Polish border.