WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine hits bridge linking Crimea to mainland in blow to Russian supply route

Ukrainian missiles on Thursday struck one of the few bridges linking the Crimea Peninsula with the Ukrainian mainland, Russian-appointed officials said, cutting one of the main supply routes for Russian occupation forces in southern Ukraine.

Meanwhile on the eastern front, Ukrainian forces were containing Russian troops and have not allowed "a single metre" of Russian advances, Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said on the Telegram app on Thursday.

She added Ukrainian forces on the southern front, where several villages were retaken last week, were "gradually moving forward. We have had partial success. We are pushing back the enemy and levelling the front line".

Ukraine is attacking Russian supply lines to disrupt Moscow's defence of occupied territory in the south, where Kyiv is in the early stages of its most ambitious counteroffensive of the 16-month-old war.

Kyiv says it has recaptured eight villages so far, but it has yet to commit the bulk of its forces to the fight and its troops have yet to reach the main Russian defensive lines.

Vladimir Saldo, head of the Russian-installed administration in occupied Kherson province, released video of himself on the Chonhar road bridge, where craters were blasted through the asphalt.

"Another meaningless act perpetrated by the Kyiv regime on orders from London. It solves nothing as far as the special military operation is concerned," he said, vowing to repair the bridge and restore traffic. Ukraine did not claim responsibility for the bridge attack.

The bridge is one of a handful of access roads to Crimea, which a narrow isthmus links to the Ukrainian mainland.

Alternative routes require hours-long detours over roads in poor condition. Russia's RIA new agency quoted Russian-installed transport officials as saying repairing the bridge could take weeks.

The bridge is beyond range of the battlefield rockets Ukraine has used for a year, but within reach of newly deployed weapons such as British and French air-launched cruise missiles, allowing Kyiv to hit logistics routes Russia had deemed safe just weeks ago.

'PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT'

The strike was "a blow to the military logistics of the occupiers", said Yuriy Sobolevsky, a Ukrainian official on the governing body for the Kherson region.

"There is no place on the territory of Kherson region where they can feel safe," he said.

Russian investigators said four missiles were fired by Ukrainian forces at the bridge, the RIA news agency reported. It quoted a spokesman for military investigators as saying markings on one missile suggested it was made in France.

Ukraine's Maliar said fighting in the Lyman sector, in the north of Donetsk region, was "the most difficult".

In the south, Ukrainian forces continued their offensive aimed at moving towards the city of Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhia region and the port of Berdiansk on the Sea of Azov, she said.

Russia says it has fended off the Ukrainian counterattack and inflicted heavy casualties, which Ukraine denies.

Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin accused the leaders of the Russian military of lying to President Vladimir Putin and the Russian people about the extent of Russian losses and setbacks in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has acknowledged that progress has been slow so far, but says his troops are advancing cautiously into heavily mined and well-defended areas to minimise losses.

Zelenskiy on Thursday accused Russia of planning a terrorist attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, which is in Russian-held territory near the front line. Moscow denied any such plan.

In a video statement on Telegram, the Ukrainian president said Moscow had prepared an attack that would release radiation from the plant but did not provide evidence.

Zelenskiy also claimed in his nightly video address that Russia had formed teams to collect and hide bodies of people killed in the Kakhovka dam collapse this month in southern Ukraine. Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of being behind the dam breach.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called out Russia on Thursday for killing 136 children in Ukraine in 2022, adding its armed forces to a global list of offenders, according to a report to the U.N. Security Council seen by Reuters on children and armed conflict.

Russia has denied targeting civilians since it invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

In London, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said he was certain Ukraine will have received the $6.5 billion it needs this year for its rapid reconstruction from pledges made at a conference that closed on Thursday.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Kiev regime’s losses indicate West intends to fight Russia until last Ukrainian — Putin

The West can supply additional military equipment to Ukraine but it does not have an endless amount of manpower to work with, meaning Western countries intend to fight Russia until the last Ukrainian, Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed out at a briefing with permanent Security Council members.

"I realize that this is preliminary information because it is impossible to get a complete picture of the battlefield but overall it is clear. One can conclude that, of course, it is possible to supply additional hardware but the mobilization reserve is not infinite," the Russian head of state said commenting on the data on Ukrainian equipment and personnel losses provided by Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev.

"It seems that Ukraine’s Western allies have indeed decided to fight Russia until the last Ukrainian," the president stressed.

During the meeting, Putin listened to Shoigu’s report on Ukrainian losses and then compared that information with the data obtained by Patrushev via other channels. "Nikolay Platonovich, I asked you to maintain interaction with your colleagues from various agencies in order for us to have an objective picture of what is going on," he explained, asking for an account of "how it looks from the point of view of various agencies participating in the special military operation." "It is clear that the main responsibility rests with the Defense Ministry but nevertheless, other agencies also accumulate information," the Russian president added.

According to the Defense Ministry and Security Council, Ukrainian personnel losses have surpassed 13,000 people. Putin was also interested in how the Defense Ministry assessed the prospects of new supplies of Western military hardware.

Having listened to the reports, the president emphasized that Ukrainian army reserves had not been exhausted and Russian commanders should be practical when planning combat operations. "One has to proceed from the premise that the adversary’s advance potential has not been exhausted; a number of strategic reserves have not yet been engaged and I am asking to keep this in mind when planning combat operations. It is necessary to proceed from the real situation," Putin concluded.

** Current counteroffensive ‘not decisive’ – Kiev

Ukraine is already planning for its next ‘counter-offensive’ using the US-made Abrams tanks, Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba told state broadcaster Suspilne on Thursday.

Washington promised Kiev about 30 Abrams tanks back in January. Asked whether they might arrive in time for the current operation, Kuleba said Ukrainians should look to the future instead.

“There is hope, but one should not think only in terms of this counter-offensive,” he said. “You should not look at this counteroffensive as the last and decisive one. There will be so many counteroffensives, as many as is needed to expel Russia from our territory.”

The Abrams is a “much more complex design” than the German-made Leopards that Ukraine was provided in the spring, Kuleba added. 

Kiev launched its long-heralded attack on June 4, deploying several brigades armed with American Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and German-made Leopards against Russian defenses in Zaporozhye and southern Donetsk. 

President Vladimir Zelensky acknowledged on Wednesday that the advance had been “slower than desired.” Anonymous Western officials told CNN on Thursday that the attack was “not meeting expectations on any front.” 

According to the Russian military, Ukrainian troops were stopped cold on the screening line, losing up to 13,000 casualties and 800 armored vehicles. Briefing President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and National Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev spoke of 13 Western-made tanks being destroyed in the 16 days of fighting.

Ukrainian losses reportedly include 246 tanks, 152 infantry fighting vehicles – including 59 Western-made ones – 443 armored vehicles, 279 field artillery pieces and mortars, 42 multiple rocket launchers, ten fighter jets, four helicopters and 264 drones, according to the briefing.

Several Russian regions and organizations have offered bounties for the destruction or capture of any Leopard, Abrams or UK-made Challenger tanks provided to Ukraine. The first million-ruble prize for killing a Leopard was paid out to a Russian serviceman earlier this week. 

** NATO ‘out of the question’ for Ukraine right now – Scholz

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has argued that NATO should use its upcoming summit to marshall more military aid for Ukraine rather than pushing for the country to join the bloc. The US-led alliance is divided on the speed of Ukraine’s accession, with Britain demanding a fast-tracked process.

“We have to take a sober look at the current situation,” Scholz told parliament in Berlin on Thursday. Scholz added that Ukrainian officials have admitted “that joining NATO is out of the question” for as long as the conflict with Russia is raging, and the Western bloc should focus on other means of “support” for Kiev.

"Therefore, I suggest we focus on the top priority in Vilnius, namely strengthening the combat power of Ukraine," he argued, referring to the July summit in the Lithuanian capital.

"Our goal is… a sustainable military support of Ukraine, including with modern Western weapons,” he said, adding that EU and G7 nations could work out “security guarantees” for Ukraine in the absence of full NATO membership.

NATO’s official position on Ukrainian membership remains unchanged since 2008, when it declared that Ukraine “will become a member” at an unspecified point in the future. As long as the conflict with Russia is ongoing, this will be unlikely to shift, as Ukraine joining NATO would place the bloc at war with Russia. Prospective members can only join with the unanimous consent of all existing members.

Nevertheless, the European Parliament wants NATO leaders to use the Vilnius summit to extend a membership invitation to Ukraine, as do Polish, Lithuanian, and Ukrainian lawmakers. The UK backs these calls for urgency, with Foreign Secretary James Cleverly stating earlier on Thursday that London “would be very, very supportive” of NATO expediting Ukraine’s accession to the bloc.

“The Ukrainians have demonstrated their commitment to military reform required for NATO membership through their actions on the battlefield, and I think all NATO allies recognise that,” Cleverly added, without explicitly saying whether NATO should wait for the conflict with Russia to be resolved first.

For the time being, the US remains opposed to any fast-track process. Last week, US President Joe Biden stated that Ukraine would have to meet the same standards as everyone else and that “we are not going to make it easy.” 

Reuters/Tass/RT