WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian forces pound Avdiivka for fourth straight day

Russian forces pounded the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka for the fourth day in a row on Friday, with both Moscow and Washington deeming the intensified fighting a new offensive in Russia's 19-month-old invasion of its neighbour.

In attacks elsewhere in Ukraine, a Russian missile strike killed one person in the city of Pokrovsk, also in the east, while a drone attack in the south killed a women and seriously injured her husband.

In Avdiivka, known for its large coking plant in Ukraine's Donbas industrial heartland, officials said the Russian assaults had left the already-gutted city in flames.

"The fighting has been going on for four consecutive days," Vitaliy Barabash, head of the city's military administration, told Ukrainian national television.

"They have substantial reserves of personnel and equipment. Avdiivka is completely ablaze. They shoot, using everything they have. The hospital is again under fire, as are administrative buildings and our volunteer centre."

Russia has focused its campaign along the 1,000-km (600-mile) front on the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

A Ukrainian counteroffensive launched in June has made some progress in both the east, near Bakhmut, and in the south, where Kyiv hopes to sever a land bridge joining Russian positions in the south and east.

But the gains have not yet matched rapid gains made by advances last year in the northeast and south.

Russia's representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, said the intensified battles in the east signified a new stage in its campaign.

"Russian troops have, for several days now, switched over to active combat action practically throughout the entire front line," Nebenzia told a session of the U.N. Security Council.

"The so-called Ukrainian counteroffensive can therefore be considered finished."

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In Washington, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the Russian action amounted to a "new offensive", showing that Russia was in no way ready to give up its campaign.

But the United States, he said, was confident that the Ukrainian military would beat back Russian forces.

Military analyst Serhiy Zgurets, writing on the Espreso TV website, said Avdiivka had withstood Russian attacks in 2014, when Russian-financed separatists had seized large chunks of Ukrainian territory. The area had since been fortified.

"All Russian attacks have resulted in significant losses for them," he wrote.

In Pokrovsk, northwest of Avdiivka, one person died and 24 were injured in the morning missile attack, while in Beryslav, in the southern region of Kherson, a drone attack killed a 34-year-old woman and seriously injured her 36-year-old husband.

Russian forces abandoned the western bank of the Dnipro River in the Kherson region late last year, but continue to shell towns there from positions on the eastern bank.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Top Zelensky aide blames West for Ukraine's frontline failures

Ukraine’s Western backers are responsible for the slowdown in Kiev’s counteroffensive, a senior adviser to President Vladimir Zelensky, Mikhail Podoliak, has suggested, lamenting that weapons deliveries are taking too long. Earlier this week, Kirill Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate, acknowledged that Kiev’s military had fallen behind schedule in its attempt to drive Russian forces away.

In an interview with Ukraine’s Channel 24 on Thursday, Podoliak was asked whether he concurred with Budunov’s assessment. The official replied that Kiev’s counteroffensive is “six to nine months behind schedule.” He explained that “intensive” negotiations on arms deliveries, which began last fall, proved to be a long-drawn-out process, “with the partners afraid to acknowledge then that everything Ukraine needs should be provided as soon as possible.”

According to the Ukrainian presidential adviser, some in the West have adopted a wait-and-see approach, apparently not entirely sure whether Ukraine could withstand Russia’s push, adding that these supposed doubts are “holding back both the provision of aid and the quantity of aid.”

He revealed that President Zelensky’s regular visits to Western capitals aim to keep the conflict on the agenda. His aide pointed out that the Ukrainian head of state is also proving “very effective” in demanding compliance with existing defense agreements.

In an interview with the Ukrainskaya Pravda newspaper published on Thursday, intelligence chief Budanov said that Ukrainian forces were not merely behind schedule but had completely “fallen out of it.” He cited several things that did not go as “smoothly” as Kiev had hoped.

The official also expressed concern that the recent military conflict between Israel and HAMAS could potentially hamper the continued supply of arms to Ukraine should the hostilities in the Middle East become protracted.

Earlier, President Zelensky admitted there were problems with Ukraine’s counteroffensive, launched in early June. Last month, he said that the operation had slowed down due to Russian air superiority and blamed Kiev’s Western backers for failing to supply Ukraine’s forces with the necessary weapons.

Western military officials have also stated that Russian defenses have proven more resilient than expected.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced last week that the Ukrainian military had lost as many as 90,000 troops, nearly 1,900 armored vehicles, and some 557 tanks since the start of its counteroffensive.

Reuters/RT