2023-06-18 20:16:34
The Russian representative in the Ukrainian region admits that they have lost control of a town and Moscow acknowledges that there is heavy fighting in the area
The kyiv counteroffensive is two weeks old this Sunday and forces Moscow to recognize the first advances of the enemy in southern Ukraine, not far from the land corridor linking Donbas and the Crimean peninsula.
The Russian representative in the Ukrainian region of Zaporizhia, Vladimir Rogov, today admitted the loss of “operational control” over a town in the area as part of the enemy’s offensive actions. “By filling the western approaches and suburbs of Piatikhatki with the corpses of hundreds of its military, the enemy managed to take it under operational control,” Rogov wrote on Telegram.
The chairman of the “Together with Russia” movement in Zaporizhia added that Russian artillery is now hitting the enemy to prevent him from entrenching in the town. If the Ukrainian armed forces manage to gain a foothold in Pyatikhatki and receive reinforcements, the next town in their sights will be Zherebianki, he warned. From there, Ukrainian troops will be able to begin an offensive on the city of Vasilivka, 70 kilometers from Melitopol.
The Russian Ministry of Defense did not confirm in its daily report the loss of control over Piatikhatki, but it did acknowledge that the heaviest fighting is now taking place on the Zaporizhia front. “During the last day, the Ukrainian armed forces continued attempts to attack on the Zaporizhia, South Donetsk and Donetsk fronts,” the military report said.
The Russian military assures that “all the attacks” of the enemy are repelled and only in Zaporizhia the kyiv forces lost “more than 200 soldiers and 33 tanks” in one day. Another 210 enemy soldiers were killed in the last day in the Donetsk sector of the front, according to the Russian side.
The latest part of British Intelligence also confirms heavy fighting in Zaporizhia and Donetsk, as well as around the disputed city of Bakhmut. “In these areas, Ukraine continues offensive operations and has made little progress,” London said. At the same time, he adds that in the south the Russians are defending themselves “relatively effectively” and “both sides are suffering heavy casualties.” “Russian losses are the highest since the peak of the battle for Bakhmut in March,” he maintains.
According to Ukraine, the Russian forces lose troops and military equipment equivalent to more than four companies in just 24 hours.
Meanwhile, the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) echoes the statements of a pro-Russian official from Zaporizhia who announced the authorities’ plans to execute several infrastructure projects connecting the Zaporizhia region with the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014.
According to the ISW, the move likely seeks to “secure new land lines of communication for the Russian grouping in southern Ukraine.” In particular, it is planned to build a railway from the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don to Crimea that will pass through the Zaporizhia region. In addition, Russian officials seek to strengthen highways connecting Russia and the Ukrainian territories under its control.
While, the Kremlin considers the goal of demilitarizing Ukraine “largely” accomplished. “It is using less and less of its own weapons and more and more the weapons systems supplied to it by Western countries,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitri Peskov said. Therefore, “one of the tasks” that the Russian side had set for itself “has in fact been largely accomplished,” he added. Peskov insisted that Ukraine was “heavily militarized” a year and a half ago, which can no longer be said now.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered what Moscow continues to call a “special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, citing the need to “demilitarize” and “denazify” the neighboring country, as well as protect the population of Donbas.
The leader of Donetsk imposed by Russia, Denis Pushilin, commented on Sunday the words of the Kremlin spokesman and assured that these refer only to the weapons that Ukraine had and that were destroyed by Russia. “In this part, demilitarization has been completed, but that does not mean that denazification should not be carried out,” Pushilin was quoted as saying by the TASS agency.
In other statements, collected by the RIA Novosti agency, the pro-Russian leader insisted that the completion of demilitarization will not prevent Russia from continuing to “liberate” territories in the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmitró Kuleba, affirmed today that the announcement about one of the objectives fulfilled is part of the Russian policy to sell setbacks as successes.
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