Ukraine said on Monday that it carried out “offensive actions” at the front and who managed to advance near the devastated city of bakhmutin the east, although he downplayed the magnitude of these attacks, which Russia claimed to have repelled.
The Ukrainian government has been preparing for months a great counteroffensive to expel Russian troops from the areas occupied after the February 2020 invasion. The Kiev authorities warn however that they will not reveal anything about their plans or the timetable.
“The Defensive Operation [de Ucrania] includes counteroffensive actions. Therefore, in certain sectors, we are carrying out offensive actions“Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar said on Telegram.
Maliar also reported, without giving further details, that there were “minor combat” in the south, where Russian forces are “on the defensive”. His statements come after the Russian Defense Ministry claimed to have thwarted attacks on five sectors of the front “in the southern direction of the Donetsk region” (east).
In a statement, the ministry noted that Ukrainian troops had suffered heavy losses near Neskuchne, in the Donetsk region, and Novodarivka, on the border of this region and Zaporizhia, further south. Other attempts to “penetrate the Russian defenses” took place in the town of Novodonetske, near Vugledar, a hot spot of the front, in southern Donetsk.
“The enemy did not achieve its objective,” the Russian ministry congratulated itself, showing images of destroyed Ukrainian armored vehicles.
Advances near Bakhmut
Ukrainian forces are also on the offensive further north, near bakhmut, a city that Moscow claimed to have taken in May after months of deadly fighting. According to kyiv, the town remains as the “epicenter of hostilities”. The Ukrainian deputy defense minister said her troops were “advancing on a fairly wide front” near the city.
“We are achieving successes and occupying the commanding heights. The enemy is on the defensive,” Maliar said. The Ukrainian advance was confirmed by the head of the Russian Wagner paramilitary organization, Yevgeny Prigozhin. “Part of the town of Berkhivka was lost,” he said, calling the setback a “shame.”
Ukrainian authorities keep silent about the contours of the counteroffensive, but Russian military experts think that Ukrainian troops multiply attacks on Russian lines to discover their flaws before launching it.
This was what happened in September 2022, when the kyiv army secretly prepared an assault with which they reconquered almost the entire Kharkov region (northeast).
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed the fighting near Bakhmut and in the southern Donetsk region, but did not comment on its strategic significance.
“I think the best thing is to let the Ukrainians communicate about their operation,” Austin said from New Delhi.
“What will happen next?”
On the other hand, for two weeks the Russian region of Belgorod, bordering Ukraine, has been the scene of attacks, bombings and fighting between the Russian army and pro-Ukrainian Russian fighters.
The assaults have left several dead and dozens injured.
In an operation on Sunday, one of these groups took prisoners and said they will be handed over to kyiv. In a released video you can see images of a dozen detainees, two of them injured. It is the first time that Russian citizens have been captured on Russian territory.
The governor of Belgorod, Viacheslav Gladkov, had mentioned the possibility of negotiations but the pro-Ukrainian fighters denounced in the video that the Russian officials did not attend an agreed appointment.
In recent days the fighting has been concentrated in the towns of Novaya Tavolzhanka and Shebekino, near the border, forcing thousands of civilians to flee to the homonymous regional capital Belgorod.
“We are in a terrible state. But we hold on, we try to be strong because we have children (…). But what will happen next? We don’t know anything,” Irina Burlakova, a displaced person who went to seek humanitarian aid in a hospital, told AFP. center.
This 30-year-old woman fled Shebekino with her husband and son. They lived in the center of the city, hit in recent days by heavy artillery fire.
Related news
In the evening, the Belgorod region was again targeted by shelling and a drone attack that injured one person and damaged an energy infrastructure site, according to Gladkov.
Ukraine insists that it is not behind these attacks.