Ukrainian soldiers preparing to fire mobile artillery toward Russian positions in the Zaporizhzhia region, this month.Credit…David Guttenfelder for The New York Times
The Ukrainian military said on Thursday that its forces were pushing in two directions in southern Ukraine, aiming to rip through Moscow’s heavily fortified defensive lines, as President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia acknowledged a major uptick in fighting.
“We confirm that hostilities have intensified and in a significant way,” Mr. Putin said on the sidelines of a summit of African leaders in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was the Russian president’s first direct comments on what U.S. officials have described as the start of Ukraine’s main thrust of its counteroffensive in the Zaporizhzhia region, involving thousands of soldiers newly outfitted with Western arms.
Earlier on Thursday, Russia launched blistering artillery and aerial bombardments across southern Ukraine, the Ukrainian military said, an apparent effort to repel the intensifying Ukrainian assault. Russian forces are focusing their “main efforts on preventing the further advance of Ukrainian troops,” the Ukrainian military’s general staff reported.
It said that Ukrainian forces “continue to conduct an offensive operation in Melitopol and Berdiansk directions,” two cities along the Sea of Azov, which Ukraine hopes to reach in order to drive a wedge through Russian-occupied territory in southern and eastern Ukraine.
After nearly two months of grueling efforts to grind across open fields seeded with mines, battling tree line to tree line in one ruined hamlet after another, the Ukrainian military gave no confirmation that its counteroffensive had entered a new phase. Its general staff, which is responsible for Kyiv’s overall military strategy, has sought to maintain operational secrecy,
Privately, Ukrainian officials said reserve units were not yet in use and the units already engaged were still working on creating breaches in Russia’s defenses.
Two American officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the campaign, said they believe that Ukraine’s “main thrust” was taking place in the direction of Robotyne, which is about six miles from the Ukrainian-controlled town of Orikhiv and about 50 miles north of Melitopol.
Ukrainian soldiers conducting demining training exercises in the Zaporizhzhia region in June.Credit…David Guttenfelder for The New York Times
One Ukrainian military official dismissed the U.S. claims of a major thrust south of Orikhiv, saying that Ukrainian forces were in defensive positions around Robotyne.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday that Ukraine’s assault in the area had failed, suffering “heavy losses,” and that Kyiv’s forces did not go on the attack overnight.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, speaking to reporters while visiting Papua New Guinea on Thursday, did not comment on the claims that the counteroffensive was in a new phase. He said Kyiv has done a good job “preserving manpower and equipment” despite months of bloody fighting, and still has “a number of options available to them.”
Reaching Russian-occupied Melitopol is a key objective of the Ukrainian counteroffensive. Doing so would sever the so-called land bridge connecting Russian forces in eastern Ukraine from those in the south.
Ukraine is also attempting to advance eastward in the direction of the city of Bakhmut and south toward Berdiansk, a port city about 70 miles east of Melitopol, a direction in which it reported progress.
Ukrainian Special Forces released video, verified by The New York Times, that appears to show Ukrainian soldiers taking Russian soldiers prisoner in the village of Staromaiorske. The village, about 90 miles north of Berdiansk, is near a cluster of farming hamlets along a winding river that Ukrainian forces claimed in the early days of their counteroffensive.
Earlier footage verified by The Times and posted to social media in recent days shows Ukraine’s southern advance into Russian-held territory, including Staromaiorske. One video, posted by a Ukrainian air reconnaissance team, shows soldiers, apparently Russian, fleeing near an intersection in the northwest part of the village. It is not clear from the footage how much control Ukraine has established there.
Carlotta Gall contributed reporting from the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, and Haley Willis from Seoul.
— Marc Santora reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine
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Source link: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/07/27/world/russia-ukraine-news