AFU foothold on Dnipro left bank, Peskov's son joins Wagner, Ukrainian UAVs near Moscow. What happened on the front line on April 24?

The AFU is preparing a counteroffensive and is not going to surrender Bakhmut, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Al Arabiya. “It is impossible for us to give up on Bakhmut because this will [help] expand the battle front and will give the Russian forces and Wagner chances to seize more of our lands,” Zelensky said. The outlet noted that if Russia captures Bakhmut, that could act as a stepping-stone to advance on two bigger cities it has long coveted in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine – Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

Russian forces are preparing a new offensive on Vuhledar, according to a report from Oleksiy Dmitrashkovskyi, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Tavrian direction defense forces. According to Dmitrashkovskyi, the town is currently being bombed from the air.

According to MilitaryLand.net, the Ukrainian army has managed to gain a foothold on the left bank of the Dnipro River in the Kherson region. Russian pro-war channels wrote that at the end of last week, Ukrainian forces became more active in the Dnipro floodplain south of Potemkin Island, with landing groups of up to 30 soldiers disembarking in the area. Russia has also reportedly maintained control of the part of Antonivsky Island adjacent to the eponymous destroyed bridge, while the AFU has moved westward, toward Kruhlyk Island. Many researchers, such as the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Nathan Ruser, say that the area on maps on the left bank of the Dnipro, often marked as under AFU control, is actually a swampy flood plain with no roads, meaning it cannot serve as a bridgehead for a full-fledged offensive.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Group, has declared that the PMC will “no longer take prisoners” in combat. The announcement was a response to a voice recording that allegedly captured a conversation between Ukrainian fighters who decided to shoot a wounded captive mercenary. The “intercept” was published in the Wagner’s Tactical Vest (“Razgruzka Wagnera”) Telegram channel – a source reportedly close to the PMC.

Air, artillery and naval attacks

Four Ukrainian UAVs attacked the Belgorod region on the night of April 24. According to local media reports, the drones were spotted in the Belgorod and Shebekinsky districts. One of the drones was reportedly shot down, after which it exploded due to it being packed with explosives. Another UAV fell on its own and also exploded, the reports said.

The “governor” of occupied Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, claimed that on the night of April 24, the city was attacked by two maritime drones, one of which was destroyed by anti-submarine diversionary defense forces, while the other exploded on its own. No one was injured and four homes had their windows blown out as a result of the attack, Razvozhayev said. According to a report by the Russian Defense Ministry, three drones took part in the attack.