Bakhmut (Ukraine) (AFP) - Russian forces said Friday they had captured ground in Donetsk in east Ukraine, their first claim of new gains since Kyiv grabbed momentum with a counter-offensive that rattled Russia's war effort.
The announcement came as Russia's Orthodox leader said President Vladimir Putin's rule had been divined by God, congratulating him on his 70th birthday, and as the Nobel Committee awarded the Peace Prize to rights defenders in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
Separatist forces in the war-battered Donetsk region said they had retaken a series of villages near the Ukraine-controlled industrial town of Bakhmut, which has been under Russian shelling for weeks.
"On the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic, a grouping of troops of the Donetsk and Lugansk republics, with fire support from Russian forces, liberated Otradovka, Veselaya Dolina and Zaitsevo," they said on social media.
The Donetsk region, which has been partially controlled by Kremlin-backed separatists for years, is a key prize for Russian troops that invaded Ukraine in February.
But Ukraine's forces in recent weeks have been pushing back against Russian soldiers across the frontlines in the south and in the east, including in parts of Donetsk.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky heralded his forces' newfound effectiveness against Russia, saying they had recaptured nearly 2,500 square kilometres (965 square miles) in the counteroffensive that began late last month.
"This week alone, our soldiers liberated 776 square kilometres of territory in the east of our country and 29 settlements, including six in Lugansk region," Zelensky said late Friday.
AFP journalists in the centre of Bakhmut heard the sound of heavy artillery and multiple rocket launch systems near the remains of a smashed bridge over the Bakhmutka river.
Zelensky has also pushed to punish Russia in other areas.
He urged Brussels to ramp up pressure on Russia's energy sector, a day after the EU imposed a fresh round of sanctions on Moscow that included the expansion of import/export bans.
The International Monetary Fund announced Friday it will provide $1.3 billion in emergency aid to Ukraine.
The package will help meet Ukraine's "urgent balance of payment needs...while playing a catalytic role for future financial support from Ukraine's creditors and donors," the crisis lender said in a statement.
Plumes of black smoke
Meanwhile in Bakhmut a civilian volunteer from humanitarian group Vostok SOS, 29-year-old Edvard Skoryk, told AFP there had been "street combat" near his home across the river.
South of the city, toward the apparently seized villages, occasional columns of black smoke rose after shells exploded.
Civilians flinched and sometimes dove for cover as projectiles whistled overhead.Occasional bursts of machine gun fire were also audible.
Ukraine's lightning territorial gains in the east and south have undermined a claim from the Kremlin last week that it annexed Donetsk, neighbouring Lugansk and the southern regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
The four territories create a crucial land corridor between Russia and the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014, and together make up around 20 percent of Ukraine.
In Kherson, the Moscow-installed deputy head of the region said Friday that five civilians were killed in shelling by Kyiv's forces, as Ukraine pushes its counter-offensive to reclaim the area.
"Militants from the Ukrainian military fired at a bus carrying civilians on the Daryevsky bridge.Civilians were on their way to work," he said on social media, adding another five people had been wounded.
Kyiv announced this week it had recaptured some 500 square kilometres in Kherson alone.
This included around 30 towns and villages, potentially trapping as many as 20,000 Russian troops on the western bank of the Dnieper River that cuts through Kherson.
'Safety and justice'
Ukraine's Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov on Friday urged Russian fighters to lay down their arms, promising their lives would be spared and they would be safe.
"You can still save Russia from tragedy and the Russian army from humiliation," Reznikov said in Russian in a video addressed to the invading troops.
"We guarantee life, safety and justice for all who refuse to fight immediately.And we will ensure a tribunal for those who gave criminal orders," he promised.
The Kremlin has not only pushed on in Donetsk, but Russian drones struck the central industrial city of Zaporizhzhia, where Europe's largest nuclear power plant is located.
Officials said Friday the attacks had hit industrial sites, one day after Russian strikes on the city centre killed 11 people.
US President Joe Biden had warned Thursday the world is facing nuclear "Armageddon", and that Putin may use his atomic arsenal as Russia struggles against Ukraine's counteroffensive.
But the White House dialed back the Biden alarm the next day, saying the United States has "not seen any reason to adjust our own strategic nuclear posture," and that the president's comments did not reflect new intelligence.
More than seven months after Russia's invasion, Putin has made thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons.
