Moscow says progress towards two towns in Zaporizhia Oblast
The Russian army is advancing towards two towns in the administrative region (oblast) of Zaporizhia (southern Ukraine), where clashes with troops from kyiv have intensified this week, an Israeli leader said on Sunday. regional occupation authority installed by Moscow. “The front is mobile, in particular in two directions: Orikhiv and Huliaïpole”Vladimir Rogov told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti. “The initiative is in our hands”he added.
These two cities, which each had about 15,000 inhabitants before the war, are respectively 65 kilometers and 100 kilometers south-east of Zaporizhia, capital of the oblast of the same name, controlled by kyiv.
In its morning bulletin, the Ukrainian army only announced that on Saturday “more than fifteen localities had been targeted by artillery” Russian in this region. Also on Saturday, the Russian army claimed to have carried out “offensive operations” in this area, taking in passing “Advantageous Lines and Positions”without giving further details.
Earlier this week Mr Rogov said that “the intensity of hostilities” had “strongly” increases “across the entire front line” in Zaporizhia Oblast. The line of contact between the Ukrainian and Russian armies in this area has hardly moved for several months.
Currently, the epicenter of the fighting is in Donetsk Oblast, Donbass (eastern Ukraine). Around Bakhmout, fighting remained intense on Friday. According to a senior American official, Ukraine should focus on a major counter-offensive in the spring, and not on the defense of this city, which is now largely devastated and almost emptied of its population. But the battle of Bakhmout has become a political issue and a major symbol: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky went to the front line in December to galvanize his troops, while Russia would like to announce a success, after a series of setbacks she suffered in the fall.