Ukraine on Monday claimed some gains in the east and south, small advances in its grueling counter-offensive launched two months ago to liberate these Russian-occupied territories.
In the east, the battle for Bakhmout continues to rage for a year. Conquered in May after months of bloody fighting by the Russians, it is now the latter who are on the defensive in this ravaged city, which has become a symbol of war.
“In the Bakhmout sector, 3 km2 were liberated last week. A total of 40 km2 have already been liberated on the southern flank of the Bakhmout sector,” said Ganna Maliar, the Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister.
Ukraine is in difficulty further north, around Koupiansk, so that it could not “concentrate (its) forces on the offensive in the Bakhmout sector”, according to Ms. Maliar.
Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, repeats over and over again that the counter-offensive has already failed.
And Moscow has launched its own offensive in the northeast, now threatening the city of Kupiansk, taken over by kyiv last September. On Thursday, the Ukrainian authorities ordered the evacuation of dozens of villages in the face of the Russian advance in this part of the Kharkiv region.
On the southern front, where Ukrainian soldiers have been searching for weak spots in Russian defense lines for weeks, made up of minefields, trenches and anti-tank booby traps, Maliar remained vague, citing progress nonetheless.
“Hostilities continue in the locality of Ourojaïné, we have some successes,” she said.
Finally, in the Kherson region (south), the deputy minister mentioned “actions” carried out by “certain Ukrainian units” on the eastern bank of the Dnieper, where the Russian army withdrew in November 2022, this river thus becoming the front line.
Backed by substantial Western military aid, Ukraine launched a vast counter-offensive in June to drive the Russian army out of the territories it occupies.
kyiv prepared for the operation for months, hoarding resources and training recruits. During this time, the Russians have built powerful defenses, so that the Ukrainian army advances only very painfully.
Ukrainian leaders keep saying that the fighting is tough but that the first results are there and that they need more long-range missiles to ravage the Russian rear.
An adviser to the presidency, Mykhaïlo Podoliak, once again criticized those who consider the Ukrainian offensive too slow. “Our mission is not to orchestrate large-scale battles for each village (…) but to systematically destroy the capabilities of the enemy army,” he said on X, the former Twitter.
“And the Ukrainian army applies itself to this task 100%,” he added.
Midday Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that Russian air defense systems had “detected and destroyed drones” attributed to Kiev “over the territory of the Belgorod region”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he went to meet the troops on the eastern front, in the Donetsk region.
Russia is continuing its campaign of bombing Ukraine, claiming to destroy warehouses and military barracks.
But, on the ground, it is also restaurants, hotels, homes that are destroyed, causing deaths and injuries.
The funeral of an eight-year-old boy, Volodymyr Balabanyk, took place Monday in the Ivano-Frankivsk region (west), located hundreds of kilometers from the front.
According to kyiv, he was killed when a hypersonic Kinjal missile, which was aimed at an airfield, finally fell on a house on Friday.
Balloons in the shape of dinosaurs floated above the small white coffin during the burial in Kolomyia, where a tide of flowers and tearful loved ones surrounded the grave.
Odessa, a major Ukrainian port on the Black Sea, was for its part attacked overnight from Sunday to Monday by fifteen drones and eight missiles, announced the Ukrainian Operational Command.
These devices were shot down by anti-aircraft defence, he added, but their debris damaged a supermarket, in which three employees were injured. According to the town hall, nurseries and kindergartens also suffered damage.
In Russia, under the effect of the sanctions, the ruble hit record lows, leading the central bank to organize a surprise meeting on Tuesday on the key rate in an attempt to stem the slide in the currency which threatens the power of purchase from the Russians.
14/08/2023 18:05:27 – Kiev (Ukraine) (AFP) © 2023 AFP
