2023-06-20 06:29:58
The Ukrainian counteroffensive entered its third week with a mixed result in the face of Russia’s air superiority and kilometer-long defensive lines, especially in the east and in the southeastern region of Zaporizhia, where the toughest battles are concentrated and where Moscow has sent reinforcements. The Ukrainian balance so far is eight small towns recaptured in the south of Donetsk and in Zaporizhia, the last being Piatijatki, which was taken after a hard battle according to the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valeri Zaluzhni.
“Difficult” situation in the east
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar acknowledged that the situation “in the east is difficult” because Russia is carrying out an offensive in the directions of Liman (Donetsk) and Kupiansk (Kharkov) “trying to take the initiative from us.” To that end, Russia concentrated “a significant number of its units in the east, especially the airborne assault units,” according to Maliar.
Kiev troops, trying to reach the occupied cities of Berdiansk and Melitopol in order to break through the land corridor created along the Azov Sea coast, pushed back the Russian forces in Zaporizhia to a distance of seven kilometers and liberated 113 square kilometers. The Russian Defense Ministry did not acknowledge the loss of any towns and continues to say daily that it is repelling Ukrainian attacks.
This Monday the Russian military spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, pointed out that the units of the Vostok and Sur groups repelled three assaults in the south of the Donetsk region, two in Zaporizhia and four near the city of Donetsk, with a balance of 440 casualties. among enemy soldiers, in addition to the destruction of weapons. However, the president of the “Together with Russia” movement in Zaporizhia, Vladimir Rogov, admitted on Sunday the loss of operational control of Piatikhatki, while 24 hours later he said that Ukrainian soldiers “launched another offensive in the direction of Orikhiv”, one from the epicenters of the battles in the southeast.
Target: the Azov Sea
From Piatijatki the Ukrainians can reach Vasilivka, where an important route passes that leads south to Melitopol, near the Azov Sea, which is an important logistics and supply hub for Russian troops. From Oríjiv, kyiv’s troops also pushed south, where Tokmak is located, from which two highways to Melitópol and Berdiansk, respectively, depart.
The road to these strategic points in Zaporizhia will not be easy for the Ukrainian Army. An interactive map that is frequently updated by Brady Africk, of the American Enterprise Institute’s press department and an open source intelligence (OSINT) analyst, shows a dense defensive line to the south of where the heaviest fighting is currently taking place, especially around Vasilivka. and Tokmak.
Russia attacks with high-precision missiles
This Monday the Russian Defense Ministry claimed to have destroyed warehouses with Western weapons with high-precision missiles, hours after Ukraine denounced missile attacks against the port of Odessa, on the Black Sea. Russia also launched four Iranian-made Shahed kamikaze drones into the Dnipropetrovsk region, which were intercepted by Ukraine’s military, according to the region’s military authority.
At least seven people, including a child, were injured by Ukrainian artillery fire against the Valuisk district, in the Russian region of Belgorod, reported the governor of this federated entity bordering Ukraine, Viachelav Gladkov. One man and three women were hospitalized with medium-severity injuries and two other people, with minor injuries, received medical care on an outpatient basis.
Last week Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that if Ukraine continues to attack the border, Moscow will be forced to create what it called a “sanitary zone” on the neighboring country’s territory. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his usual speech on Monday: “Our troops are advancing. Position by position, step by step, we are advancing.”
At a meeting of the General Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief with the military commanders and the head of military intelligence, Zelensky discussed the operational situation, the supply of ammunition and the forecast of the enemy’s actions in the near future.
UN proposal
Meanwhile, the United Nations has been willing to visit all areas of Ukraine, including Russian-controlled territories. The UN humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, Denise Brown, criticized Moscow this weekend for not allowing the agency to enter the Russian-controlled area of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, which was destroyed on the sixth of this month. and flooded large areas of the Kherson region, under Ukrainian and Russian control.
Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said that it is very difficult to guarantee the safety of UN experts who intend to inspect the territory around the hydroelectric power station after its destruction, since the area is under constant shelling and provocations.
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