Ukraine: The war could last for years, according to the owner of the Russian Wagner Group, a private military contractor actively engaged in the fighting in Ukraine.
Yevgeny Prigozhin predicted in a late-Friday video interview that it might take 18 to 2 years for Russia to fully regain control of Donbas, the country's industrial hub in the east. If Moscow decides to seize larger areas east of the Dnieper River, he continued, the war might last for three years.
The millionaire Prigozhin, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and has earned the nickname "Putin's chef" for his lucrative catering contracts with the Kremlin, made the statement as a sign of recognition for the challenges the Kremlin has encountered in the campaign, which it had originally anticipated would be over in a matter of weeks when Russian troops invaded Ukraine on February 24.
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When the Ukrainian military launched successful counteroffensives to retake large portions of territory in the east and the south, Russia suffered a string of humiliating setbacks. The Kremlin has refrained from predicting how long the fighting might last, saying that the "special military operation" will go on until its objectives are achieved.
In the Donbas region of Ukraine, which includes the provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk, Moscow-backed separatists have been battling Ukrainian forces since 2014.
As the war approaches the one-year mark, Ukrainian and Western officials have issued warnings that Russia could start a new, extensive offensive to try to change the course of the conflict. However, Andriy Chernyak, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military intelligence, told the Kyiv Post that "Russian command does not have enough resources for large-scale offensive actions."
The main objective of Russian forces in eastern Ukraine is still to have at least some tactical success, he said. According to Prigozhin, fierce battles between the Wagner Group mercenaries and the Ukrainian military are still going on for control of the Bakhmut stronghold in the Donetsk region. He admitted that the Ukrainian soldiers were putting up a fierce fight.
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In addition to advancing its offensive in the Donbas, Russia has been trying to demoralize Ukrainians by denying them access to water and heat during the bitter winter. Russia began its fourteenth round of extensive attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities and other crucial infrastructure on Friday. Some areas experienced power outages as a result of high-voltage infrastructure facilities being struck in the eastern, western, and southern regions.
The energy company for Ukraine, Ukrenergo, declared on Saturday that the situation was "difficult but manageable." It added that backups were being used to maintain power supplies, but noted that power rationing would still be necessary in some areas. Petro Kotin, the head of Ukraine's state nuclear operator Energoatom, stated on Saturday that after two nuclear reactors are repaired, more power will enter the nation's energy system.
Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander of the armed forces of Ukraine, reported that between late Thursday and midday Friday, Russian forces launched 71 cruise missiles, 35 S-300 missiles, and seven Shahed drones. He also noted that Ukrainian air defenses shot down 61 cruise missiles and five drones.
Later on Friday, the Ukrainian authorities reported additional drone-killing attacks. According to the Ukrainian air force, 20 Shahed drones were shot down that evening.
The operation of Ukraine's defense factories was halted, and deliveries of Western weapons and ammunition were prevented, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, which also claimed that all the targeted buildings were struck on Friday. The assertion was not independently verifiable.
Late on Friday, a video depicting a sea drone attack on a vital railroad bridge in the Odessa region was posted online by some Ukrainian news outlets as well as Russian military bloggers. The blurry video showed an object moving quickly across the water as it approached the bridge in Zatoka, which is located about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of Odesa.
The Ukrainian military confirmed on Saturday that Russian forces had used sea drones, though the authenticity of the video could not be confirmed.
The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, and Ukraine's military chief Zaluzhnyi spoke on the phone on Saturday, and Milley expressed concern about the use of such drones, adding that it "poses a threat to civilian navigation in the Black Sea."
Russia has used a sea drone in combat for the first time in this conflict thanks to the attack. Igor Korotchenko, a retired colonel of the Russian military who frequently offers commentary on the conflict on Russian state television, said on Saturday that such drones should be outfitted with a more potent load of explosives to deal more substantial damage.
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The railway connection to Romania, a crucial route for the flow of Western arms supplies, is served by the bridge, which was the target of Russian missile attacks early in the conflict.
In other news, the governor of the Russian region of Kursk, which shares a border with Ukraine, reported that a group of construction workers was hit by Ukrainian shelling, which resulted in the death of one of them and the injury of another.
The shelling of the town of Shebekino was reported by the governor of another Russian border region, Belgorod, who stated that two buildings were damaged but no one was hurt.