The Ukrainian army is “advancing” on the front despite “powerful resistance” from Russian troops, especially in southern Ukraine, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar said Thursday. Ukrainian forces have advanced “more than three kilometers” in the past ten days in the Bakhmout area (east), she said during a press conference.
In the south, she spoke of “a gradual but certain advance” by Ukrainian soldiers, even though “the enemy [is] putting up strong resistance”. In this area, “Ukrainian Armed Forces are faced with total field mining”, “use of suicide drones” and “heavy shelling”, she said.
Around Bakhmout, “the enemy is currently mobilizing additional reserves” to prevent the advance of Ukrainian troops and has in particular transferred an assault unit there from the south, assured Ganna Maliar. In total, the Ukrainian army has recaptured “more than 100 square kilometers” in a week of fighting, an official from the Ukrainian army general staff, Oleksiy Gromov, said during the press conference. In the southwest of the eastern Donetsk region, the Ukrainians advanced about three kilometers deep near the locality of Mala Tokmatchka and “up to seven kilometers” south of Velyka Novossilka, he said. .