Throughout the Donbass, in the Azovstal factory transformed into a fortress in Mariupol, in the oblasts of Zaporizhjia and Kherson (in the south), this 56th day was marked by the multiple attacks launched by the forces of the Russian Federation, reports Oukraïnska Pravda based on the daily situation report of the Ukrainian General Staff. “The enemy launched its offensive to completely take control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions”, and the Russian troops, “look for weak points in our defenses all along the front line”.
As a whole, the Ukrainian media and commentators agree in acknowledging that after the battle of kyiv, the country is once again going through crucial times. Thereby, Vissoki Zamok estimate that “the new Russian offensive has begun along the entire southern and eastern line, it will be the most ambitious and complex military operation of the war, such as Europe has not known since the Second World War”.
A “strategic optimism”
Interviewed by the Lviv daily, reserve colonel and Ukrainian military expert Petro Tchernyk acknowledges that “The balance of power on the ground is difficult to determine. The Russians have tens of thousands of troops and equipment, that’s the reality. The Russian blitzkrieg in February-March failed. In Moscow, we understood that Ukraine was a serious enemy. The aggressor was unable to take kyiv. Therefore, Putin’s political survival is tied to any success in Ukraine. There is no other solution for him than a success of the Russian weapons”.
“The enemy will go as far as we allow him to go, he continues. We will fight