RUSSIA’S DEFENCE MINISTER has flown into embattled eastern Ukraine as attacks on the industrial city of Avdiivka intensify.

Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigou visited Ukraine to inspect a command post and meet senior officers, the army announced in a statement.

He visited the “Vostok” command post in eastern Ukraine and heard a report on the situation on the front line, on the training of drone operators and on preparations for fighting in winter conditions.

The Russian army posted a video showing him flying in by helicopter, but the statement did not say when exactly he had made his visit.

It comes as Russian troops have stepped up their attacks in recent weeks on the industrial city of Avdiivka, in eastern Ukraine.

Yesterday, officials in Kyiv said Russian shelling had wounded at least eight people overnight in frontline regions, while both countries said they foiled attempted night-time drone attacks.

Four people, including a 12-year-old, were wounded by Russian air strikes and artillery fire in the southern Kherson region, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said on social media.

Another four were taken to hospital after an attack on the northeast region of Kharkiv.

Regional officials in Kharkiv posted photos of a destroyed residential building with the windows blown out, a facade partially collapsed and debris strewn across the street.

Both Kyiv and Moscow said they thwarted attempted drone strikes overnight, with both sides using drones extensively throughout the 20-month conflict.

“The occupiers attacked with six ‘Shahed’-type offensive UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) from the south (Chauda, Crimea),” Ukraine’s air force said on social media.

“All six attack drones were shot down by air defence forces and means — fighter aircraft, anti-aircraft missile units, and mobile fire groups,” it added.

Russia’s defence ministry said “three unmanned Ukrainian surface boats were detected in the northern part of the Black Sea” at around 4am Moscow time (1am GMT).

“The area where the uncrewed surface vehicles were detected was hit by anti-sabotage missile and bomb systems,” it said.

Moscow has used hundreds of Iranian-made “Shahed” drones that are self-detonating.

Kyiv has stepped up its use of naval drones in the Black Sea following Russia’s July withdrawal from a grain deal that had enabled Ukrainian maritime exports.

Ukraine has targeted strikes on Moscow-annexed Crimea in a bid to disrupt Russian military supplies through the peninsula.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed his military’s progress on that front and vowed Kyiv aims to retake Crimea.

“There is now no safe base and no completely reliable logistical route in Crimea or in the occupied territories along the Azov and Black Sea coasts,” Zelensky said in a video address to the Crimean Platform.

The platform’s parliamentary summit — a diplomatic initiative launched by Kyiv before the war on returning the peninsula to Ukraine’s control — was being held in Prague yesterday.

“As of now, we have not yet achieved full fire control over Crimea and the adjacent waters. But we will. It’s a matter of time,” Zelenskyy said.

© AFP 2023