Ukraine: Ukraine’s counteroffensive ‘begins in Zaporizhzhia’
Russian officials and military bloggers say dramatically increased attacks in the region signal a Ukrainian attempt to reclaim territory has finally begun.
Ukraine launched armoured assaults on entrenched Russian forces in the southeast of the country, as a high-stakes counteroffensive by Kyiv designed to decisively shift the momentum of the 15-month war gathered steam.
Ukrainian officials said they were carrying out what they described as local attacks in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia and eastern Donetsk regions, while Russia’s defence minister said Moscow’s forces had repelled Ukrainian attempts to break through Russian lines.
The Ukrainian assaults, which used Western armoured vehicles and units trained by the West, appear to mark the initial phase of what military strategists expect to be a months-long offensive aimed at ousting Russian forces from 20 per cent of Ukrainian territory.
The Ukrainian counter-offensive marks a pivotal new phase in the war, which Russian President Vladimir Putin launched in February last year in an effort to seize control of Ukraine.
The direction of the attacks suggests that Ukraine is probing southward toward the Sea of Azov, a widely expected effort to cut a land bridge that links mainland Russia with the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula, a critical base for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials have said they won’t announce the start of the offensive, but President Volodymyr Zelensky told The Wall Street Journal a few days ago that Ukrainian forces were ready.
Ukrainian forces were attacking near the town of Orikhiv, seen as a jumping-off point for an assault toward the critical, Russian-occupied transport hub of Tokmak, Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said on Thursday. Ukrainian forces were also fighting for the town of Velyka Novosilka in the eastern Donetsk region, she said.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russian forces had prevented a breakthrough by Ukrainian troops in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, north of Crimea, driving them back with significant losses. Ukrainian officials didn’t give detailed comments on the results of the fighting, but accounts including photos and videos posted by Russian war bloggers appear to show small advances by Ukrainian forces at a heavy cost.
At the start of Russia’s invasion last year, Ukrainian troops repelled an initial assault on Kyiv, then took back swathes of territory in the country’s south and northeast in counter-attacks. Russia pursued a grinding offensive this winter and spring, which yielded few gains other than the small eastern city of Bakhmut, at the cost of thousands of troops.
Russia has constructed strong defensive lines in the south and east, including trenches and minefields. Ukraine will seek to overcome them with tens of thousands of troops trained in the West and using Western tanks and other armoured vehicles.
Russian military bloggers published photos and videos of Ukrainian armoured vehicles in action including AMX-10 armoured-fighting vehicles near Velyka Novosilka and Leopard 2 tanks near Orikhiv. Some of the footage showed damaged Ukrainian vehicles.
Military analysts expect Ukrainian forces to probe in several areas along the front line of some 1000km, before committing more forces if they sense the chance of a breakthrough. The Ukrainians could also use feints to draw in Russian forces, then strike elsewhere.
Ukraine is also pressing counter-attacks on the northern and southern flanks of Bakhmut, Russia’s only victory of note in recent months, to tie the Russian military down there. Ukrainian-backed Russian volunteers have also staged raids across Ukraine’s northeastern border into Russia to try to force Moscow to redeploy units there.
On Thursday, Mr Zelensky visited Kherson, which has been swamped by the earlier destruction of a major dam in Russian-occupied Ukraine. Hours later, Russian forces shelled the city, hitting an evacuation centre that Mr Zelensky had visited earlier in the day, halting evacuations and emptying the streets of people.
The floodwaters continued to rise in Kherson on Thursday, increasing by about 25cm from the day before, a smaller increase than some had initially feared, according to a local Ukrainian military spokesman.
The Ukrainian president said more than 2000 people had been rescued from the flooding. He didn’t offer a figure for casualties.
“Now we need a clear and quick response from the world to what is happening,” he said in his nightly televised address to the nation on Wednesday.
Ukraine has accused Russia of blowing up the Nova Kakhovka dam and power station in a Russian-occupied part of southeastern Ukraine on Tuesday.
The destruction flooded an area more than three times the size of Washington, DC and altered the shape of the battlefield at a critical time in the war.
The Wall Street Journal
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