Shelling kills 11 in Ukraine as UK flags new Russian force

We will never give it up

Russian shelling killed 11 people in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, Governor Valentyn Reznychenko said Wednesday, as British intelligence said Moscow had "almost certainly" organized a major new ground force to support its ongoing war, Qazet.az reports.

The new Russian force, called the 3rd Army Corps, is based in the city of Mulino, east of Russia's capital, Moscow, the British Defense Ministry said in a daily intelligence bulletin.

The ministry also said Russian commanders were facing "competing operational priorities" of reinforcing their offensive in the Donbass region in the east, as well as strengthening defenses against Ukrainian counterattacks in the south.

After failing to capture the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv early in the war, Russian forces have focused on the east and south, where pro-Moscow separatists have controlled territory since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

A senior Ukrainian official suggested a series of explosions at a Russian air base in Crimea on Tuesday could have been the work of partisan saboteurs, as Ukraine denied responsibility for the incident deep in Russian-occupied territory.

Huge plumes of smoke could be seen in videos posted on social media from Crimea, a holiday destination for many Russians. Russia used Crimea as one of the launch pads for its Feb. 24 invasion.

Russia said the explosions, at least 12 according to witnesses, were detonations of stored ammunition, not the result of an attack.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not directly mention the blasts in his daily video address on Tuesday but said it was right that people were focusing on Crimea.

"We will never give it up ... the Black Sea region cannot be safe while Crimea is occupied," he said, repeating his government's position that Crimea would have to be returned to Ukraine.