Ukraine has claimed it had struck a base used by a Russian paramilitary group as well as a bridge near the occupied city of Melitopol.
Sergiy Gaiday, governor of the Lugansk region in eastern Ukraine, said the base of the Wagner group was “destroyed by a precision strike.
Little is known about the shadowy paramilitary group which is believed to be linked to the Russian Government.
The presence of Wagner paramilitaries has been documented in Libya, Mali and Syria, among many other countries particularly in Africa.
Ukrainian authorities also said that saboteurs had blown up a railway bridge southwest of the city of Melitopol, which is held by Russian troops.
Melitopol’s mayor Ivan Fyodorov said on Telegram that the strike meant there would be “a complete absence of military trains from Crimea”.
The Crimean peninsula, which was placed by Russia in 2014, is an essential base for supplying Russian troops deployed in southern Ukraine.
Ukraine has also stated it is waging a counter-offensive in the south of the country, re-capturing dozens of villages and threatening to push Russian troops to the other bank of the Dnieper River.
