dpa
Kiev
The Ukrainian armed forces are under heavy pressure from Russian attacks in the east of the country, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday in his nightly video address to the nation.
The situation around Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region in particular has been thoroughly analysed by the military leadership, Zelensky said.
"This area was and continues to be the focus of Russian attacks,” Zelensky said. Everything must be done to strengthen Ukrainian defence positions in the region, he added.
The Ukrainian leader expressed "special appreciation” to all units that attacked Russian bases and logistics in the occupied territories, without naming any specific units.
"The occupier must feel that this is Ukrainian land,” Zelensky said.
Citing military sources in Kiev, Ukrainian media had previously reported a missile attack on a military airport in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014. No details were initially provided about the impact of the attack.
The Russian Ministry of Defence has not commented on the attack.
Zelensky’s remarks came after an official with Ukraine’s HUR military intelligence service said earlier on Friday that Russian forces are prioritising attacks around the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine.
"This is where the fiercest fighting is currently taking place,” HUR’s Andriy Yusov said on Ukrainian television.
Fighting is taking place on almost all sections of the front around the coal-producing Donbass region, he said.
"On all other sections, the enemy is carrying out mock attacks and diversionary manoeuvres,” he added.
Numerous feint attacks have been recorded, particularly in the region south of the city of Zaporizhzhya, he said. In reality, however, these were due to regrouping and redeployment on the Russian side, according to Yusov.
Those operations are not without danger, especially as Russia has stationed around 90,000 troops in the Zaporizhzhya region.
According to Ukrainian military experts, this number of soldiers is not sufficient for a breakthrough at the front, but the Ukrainian army could certainly be put under pressure.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russia once again struck energy facilities with overnight drone and missile attacks.
Energy supplier Ukrenergo announced on Facebook on Friday that facilities in the Zhytomyr and Chernihiv regions were affected.
Energy supply to households and industry in the Zhytomyr area was temporarily disrupted but largely restored by Friday morning. Repair work was ongoing, it said.
According to the Ukrainian armed forces, Russia used 22 drones and at least one Iskander-M missile for the attack.
Air-defence forces said they intercepted 20 drones. However, both sides regularly report high interception rates, despite frequent significant damage on the ground.