WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Ukraine battles rage, Kyiv reported to rethink counter-offensive after leak
Russian forces pressed attacks on frontline cities in eastern Ukraine on Monday, while Ukrainian officials played down a report that Kyiv is amending some plansfor a counter-offensive due to a leak of classified U.S. documents.
The Russians were pounding Ukrainian positions around besieged Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region and other cities and towns with air strikes and artillery barrages, Kyiv said.
"The enemy switched to so-called scorched earth tactics from Syria. It is destroying buildings and positions with air strikes and artillery fire," Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine's ground forces, said of Bakhmut.
The small and now largely ruined city on the edge of a chunk of Russian-controlled territory in Donetsk has for months been the biggest battleground of the war.
The head of the Moscow-controlled part of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, said Russian forces now held 75% of the city.
Moscow's military was also targeting the city of Avdiivka.
"The Russians have turned Avdiivka into a total ruin," said Pavlo Kyrylenko, Donetsk's regional governor, describing an air strike on Monday that destroyed a multi-storey building.
"In total, around 1,800 people remain in Avdiivka, all of whom risk their lives every day."
In Chasiv Yar, the first major town to Bakhmut's west, few buildings are left intact and locals lining up to collect food and other aid do not even flinch at the sound of artillery.
"It used to be scarier but now we have got used to it," said 50-year-old humanitarian volunteer Maksym. "You don't even pay attention," he added, his words nearly drowned out by the sound of explosions.
As the battles ground on, U.S. media outlet CNN reported that Ukraine was forced to amend some military plans ahead of its long-anticipated counter-offensive because of the leak of dozens of secret documents.
U.S. officials are trying to trace the source of the leak, reviewing how they sharesecrets internally and dealing with the diplomatic fallout.
The documents detail topics including information on the Ukraine conflict, in which Washington has supplied Kyiv with huge amounts of weapons and led international condemnation of Moscow's invasion.
Asked about the report, Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said Kyiv's strategic plans remained unchanged but that specific tactics were always subject to change.
The secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, told Reuters: "The opinion of people who have nothing to do with this do not interest us... The circle of people who possess information is extremely restricted."
Some national security experts and U.S. officials have said they suspect the leaker could be American, but have not ruled out pro-Russian actors.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the leak, but said: "There is in fact a tendency to always blame everything on Russia. It is, in general, a disease."
HOT ON THE EASTERN FRONT
A Ukrainian counter-offensive has long been expected after months of attritional warfare in the east.
A Russian winter offensive failed to make much progress and its troops have been bogged down in a series of battles where advances have been incremental and come at a huge cost.
The Ukrainian defenders have also taken heavy casualties.
Syrskyi said Moscow was sending in special forces and airborne units to help their attack on Bakhmut as members of Russia's private mercenary Wagner group, who have spearheaded the Bakhmut assault, were exhausted.
Reuters could not verify the battlefield accounts.
Ukraine's general staff said Russian forces had made unsuccessful advances on areas west of Bakhmut and at least 10 towns and villages had come under Russian shelling, including Bakhmut and Chasiv Yar.
Donetsk is one of four provinces in eastern and southern Ukraine that Russia declared annexed last year and is seeking to fully occupy in what appears to be a shift in its war aims after failing to overrun the country after its February 2022 invasion.
Control of Bakhmut could allow Russia to directly target Ukrainian defensive lines in Chasiv Yar and open the way for its forces to advance on two bigger cities in the Donetsk region - Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
While Ukraine has said it wants to inflict as many casualties as possible on the Russian forces as its prepares its own counteroffensive, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week said troops could be withdrawn if they risked being encircled.
In addition to shelling Avdiivka, Russian forces targeted the towns of Maryinka and Kranohorivka to its southwest as well as Vuhledar, a hilltop town further south subject to Russian attacks for several weeks, Ukraine's general staff said.
Elsewhere, Russia's defence ministry said its forces destroyed a depot with 70,000 tonnes of fuel near Zaporizhzhia, and Ukraine reported widespread Russian shelling in northern regions. Officials in the south said Russian aircraft had used guided bombs against towns in the Kherson region.
In a rare coordination between the warring parties, Russia and Ukraine carried out another prisoner swap, with 106 Russian captives freed in exchange for 100 Ukrainians.
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Kremlin comments on French peace pitch
French involvement in finding a settlement to the Ukraine conflict is difficult to imagine at the moment, because Paris has openly taken the side of Kiev, the Kremlin insisted on Monday.
“Paris can hardly aspire to be a mediator at this time, because Paris actually takes the side of one of the participants in the conflict,” Dmitry Peskov told reporters, adding that France is “directly and indirectly” involved on the side of Ukraine.
Peskov was commenting on reports from the recent visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to China. During a dinner with Macron in Guangzhou, Chinese President Xi Jinping told his visitor that Beijing welcomed French proposals for a political and diplomatic resolution of the Ukraine conflict, and would be willing to support them.
China has proposed a 12-point road map for ending the conflict, which the US openly rejected before any of its NATO allies – including France – or Ukraine itself had a chance to react.
If Macron has offered his own peace platform, it has not been made public yet. During his visit to China, the French leader demanded Beijing denounce the Russian “invasion” and side with the West, which Xi declined to do.
France has been on board with all ten rounds of EU sanctions against Russia, while sending Ukraine a variety of weapons systems, including Caesar self-propelled howitzers, Crotale air defense missiles, and AMX-10 light tanks. Paris has also trained Ukrainian troops on French soil as part of an EU program of aiding Kiev.
Macron drew criticism from the US on Monday for his comments about the EU’s “strategic autonomy” when it comes to relations with China. The French leader had said it was not in the bloc’s interest to stoke the conflict over Taiwan or “become followers on this topic and take our cue from the US agenda.”
Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee, said that the US was spending a lot of money on a “European war” and should perhaps leave the EU to “handle Ukraine” on its own instead.
** Russian air defenses destroy 11 combat drones in Ukraine operation
Russian air defense forces intercepted two rockets of the US-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket system and destroyed 11 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over the past day during the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Monday.
"During the last 24-hour period, air defense capabilities intercepted two rockets of the HIMARS multiple launch rocket system. In addition, they destroyed 11 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles in areas near the settlements of Naugolnoye and Chervonopopovka in the Lugansk People’s Republic, Tokarevka in the Kharkov Region, Vesyoloye, Peski, Blagoveshchenka and Opytnoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the spokesman said.
Russian forces wipe out Ukrainian ammo depot in Kupyansk area
Russian forces struck Ukrainian army units in the Kupyansk area, eliminating over 30 enemy troops and an ammunition depot in the Kharkov Region over the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"In the Kupyansk direction, operational/tactical and army aviation aircraft and artillery of the western battlegroup struck the enemy units in areas near the settlements of Rozovka in the Lugansk People’s Republic, Sinkovka, Timkovka, Krakhmalnoye and Pershotravnevoye in the Kharkov Region. In the area of the settlement of Staritsa in the Kharkov Region, an ammunition depot of the Ukrainian army’s 67th mechanized brigade was destroyed," the spokesman said.
The strikes eliminated enemy manpower and equipment, the general said.
"The enemy’s losses [in the Kupyansk direction] amounted to over 30 personnel, two armored combat vehicles, three motor vehicles, a Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system, and also a D-20 howitzer," Konashenkov reported.
Russian forces destroy over 120 Ukrainian troops in Krasny Liman area
Russian forces destroyed over 120 Ukrainian troops and a Gvozdika self-propelled artillery gun in the Krasny Liman area over the past day, he said.
"In the Krasny Liman direction, operational/tactical and army aviation aircraft, artillery and heavy flamethrower systems of the battlegroup Center struck the enemy units near the settlements of Terny, Torskoye and Serebryanka in the Donetsk People’s Republic and Chervonaya Dibrova in the Lugansk People’s Republic," the spokesman said.
The strikes eliminated over 120 Ukrainian personnel, five armored combat vehicles, three motor vehicles, a Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system and a D-20 howitzer, the general specified.
Russian forces destroy Ukrainian ammo depot in LPR
Russian forces destroyed an ammunition depot of the Ukrainian army in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) over the past day, Konashenkov reported.
In the Krasny Liman direction, aircraft, artillery and heavy flamethrower systems of the battlegroup Center struck the enemy troops in some areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, the spokesman said.
"In the area of the settlement of Novolyubovka in the Lugansk People’s Republic, an ammunition depot of the Ukrainian army’s 66th mechanized brigade was destroyed," the general specified.
Russian forces eliminate over 290 Ukrainian troops in Donetsk advance
Russian forces eliminated over 290 Ukrainian troops in their advance in the Donetsk area over the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"In the Donetsk direction, over 290 Ukrainian personnel, five armored combat vehicles, four motor vehicles, a Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system, and also Msta-B and D-20 howitzers were destroyed in the past 24 hours as a result of active operations by units of the southern battlegroup, strikes by its operational/tactical aircraft and artillery fire," the spokesman said.
In the area of the city of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk People’s Republic, Russian forces obliterated an ammunition depot of the Ukrainian army’s 54th mechanized brigade, the general said.
Russian forces destroy 50 Ukrainian troops in southern Donetsk, Zaporozhye areas
Russian forces destroyed roughly 50 Ukrainian troops in the southern Donetsk and Zaporozhye areas over the past day, Konashenkov reported.
In the southern Donetsk and Zaporozhye directions, operational/tactical aircraft and artillery of the Russian battlegroup East struck the Ukrainian army units near the settlements of Malaya Tokmachka, Chervonaya Krinitsa, Omelnik and Preobrazhenka in the Zaporozhye Region, the spokesman specified.
"The enemy’s losses in those areas in the past 24 hours amounted to 50 Ukrainian personnel, an armored combat vehicle, two pickup trucks, and also a Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system," the general said.
Russian forces destroy 40 Ukrainian troops in Kherson area
Russian forces destroyed roughly 40 Ukrainian troops and a US-made M777 artillery system in the Kherson area over the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"In the Kherson direction, as many as 40 Ukrainian personnel, two armored combat vehicles, 15 motor vehicles, a US-made M777 artillery system, a D-30 howitzer, and also a Gvozdika self-propelled artillery gun were destroyed as a result of damage inflicted by firepower," the spokesman said.
Russian forces strike Ukrainian army’s command posts in DPR, Kherson area
Russian forces struck the command posts of two Ukrainian army brigades in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the Kherson area over the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"In the areas of the settlements of Yampolovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic and Novoberislav in the Kherson Region, the command posts of the 125th and 126th territorial defense brigades were struck," the spokesman said.
Russian forces hammer 102 Ukrainian artillery units in past day
Russian combat aircraft, missile troops and artillery struck 102 Ukrainian artillery units at firing positions over the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"During the last 24-hour period, operational/tactical and army aviation aircraft, missile troops and artillery of the Russian group of forces struck 102 Ukrainian artillery units at firing positions, manpower and equipment in 134 areas," the spokesman said.
In all, the Russian Armed Forces have destroyed 406 Ukrainian warplanes, 228 helicopters, 3,727 unmanned aerial vehicles, 415 surface-to-air missile systems, 8,608 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,078 multiple rocket launchers, 4,554 field artillery guns and mortars and 9,414 special military motor vehicles since the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine, Konashenkov reported.
Reuters/RT/TASS
