2023-06-27 19:21:45
With Russia still in turmoil from the mutiny of Wagner’s mercenaries, Ukrainian forces are continuing, and even intensifying, the actions of the counteroffensive Started at the beginning of the month. The most significant result of this, as confirmed by Western and Russian sources, has been in the last hours la toma de Rivnopil by Ukraine. This is a small village, already practically depopulated by the war and close to the border between the Donetsk and Zaporizhia oblasts (regions), in the martyred east from the Slavic country.
This determination to keep moving forward of the Ukrainians was also confirmed by the Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom, one of kyiv’s great allies. According to this source, the Ukrainian forces carried out “small advances“in the vicinity of the town of Krasnohorivkanot far from Donetsk and which Ukraine had not controlled since the pro-Russian rebellion of 2014, according to the British ministry.
Lukashenko confirms that the head of the Wagner group is already in Belarus
Nevertheless, no one is yet sureneither knows how nor when nor if the Ukrainians will manage to carry out substantial progress in their counteroffensive. In this sense, the most skeptical sources are the French.
In its latest report on June 26, the French Ministry of Defense summarized the situation with two pessimistic conclusions. The first: despite the fact that “ukrainian forces seem to be getting stronger” in some areas, the counter-offensive “continues on most of the front no significant progress“. The second: “the rebellion Wagner has had no impact on the front”.
open fronts
This circumstance, however, does not mean that the fights be little intense. According to various analysis centers, including the Institute for War Studies (ISW, based in Washington), the confrontations are being particularly harsh, for example, in the southern Bakhmut area.
“Commanding General of the Eastern Ukrainian Group of Forces, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, stated that the Ukrainian forces eliminated a bridgehead along the Siverskyi-Donets canal in the direction of Bakhmut,” the ISW explained. “And a thousand Russian bloggers claimed that Ukrainian forces advanced to the southwest of Bakhmut”, added the center.
Along the same lines, there has also been a record of these meter to meter battles on the southern front, especially in areas of the region of Zaporizhiawhich worries about the presence there of the gran central nuclear. This, even more so after Ukrainian military intelligence alerted days ago of an alleged Russian plan that would have already been approved and that would consist of placing mines and car bombs in that compound.
Politics, expectant
The IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has not been able to confirm this information, although it said it is aware of mines than before were placed “outside the plant perimeterand others in specific places inside”, which is also extremely dangerous. In addition, the French Ministry of Defense has highlighted that the Russian forces are attacking further to the northeast, in the direction of Kupiansk y Petropavlivkaon the right bank of the Oskil river.
Even with the unknown of changes in the near future, which are possible, the confusion in Moscow has also had the consequence that the Ukrainian authorities are putting the emphasis on successes achieved so far, at a time when the eyes of many are focused on the counteroffensive. The latter was particularly clear these days in the words of Hanna Malyar, Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister, who had previously acknowledged that the Ukrainian advance is being slow. The term of comparison is also the Ukrainian counter-offensive last fall, which resulted in kyiv retaking large parts of its territory.
Malyar has now stressed that his country has fully retaken about 130 square kilometers since the start of the counteroffensive three weeks ago, which would amount to a dozen towns which are again under Ukrainian control. But even there, according to various sources, the situation is still unstable.
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