WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Ukraine reports 'particularly fruitful' few days in counteroffensive
A Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russian forces has been "particularly fruitful" in the past few days and Ukraine's troops are fulfilling their main tasks, a senior security official said on Tuesday.
The comments by Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, were Kyiv's latest positive assessment of the month-old counterattack although Moscow has not acknowledged Ukraine's gains.
Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister, Hanna Maliar, also reported gains around the shattered city of Bakhmut despite fierce Russian resistance. Russian forces had captured it in May after 10 months of battles.
Russia, which began its full-scale invasion in February 2022, still holds swathes of territory in eastern and southern Ukraine but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday his troops had made progress after a "difficult" week.
"At this stage of active hostilities, Ukraine's Defense Forces are fulfilling the number one task – the maximum destruction of manpower, equipment, fuel depots, military vehicles, command posts, artillery and air defense forces of the Russian army," Danilov, head of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, wrote on Twitter.
"The last few days have been particularly fruitful," he said, without providing any details from the battlefield.
Valeriy Shershen, spokesperson for the Tavria, or southern, military command, said Ukrainian troops had advanced by up to 2 km (1.2 miles) in the Berdiansk direction of southern Ukraine, despite fierce Russian resistance.
GAINS NEAR DESTROYED BAKHMUT
Deputy Defence Minister Maliar said Ukrainian forces were making gains every day in areas outside Bakhmut.
"We are advancing on the southern flank of Bakhmut. To the north, to be honest, there is heavy fighting and so far no advance," Maliar told national television.
"... Our forces are encountering serious resistance. The enemy is pouring in all its forces to stop in the south and in the east."
Russian forces, she said, were also making advances further north, near Lyman and in Svatove, where Russian troops have recently been particularly active.
In Makiivka, a town in the Russian-controlled part of Donetsk region, Ukraine's military it had destroyed a formation of Russian forces. Russia-installed officials said one civilian died and 36 civilians were injured in the attack.
Reuters has been unable to verify the situation on the battlefield. Each side says the other is suffering heavy losses.
Accounts of frontline fighting from the Russian Defence Ministry said its forces had foiled Ukraine's in five areas of eastern Donetsk region.
It also reported repelling attacks near Lyman and disrupting enemy operations in the Zaporizhzhia region, where Ukraine says its forces have captured a cluster of villages.
The General Staff of Ukraine's military reported success in repelling Russian attacks in Kupiansk in the north, Bakhmut and near the contested towns of Avdiivka and Maryinka to the south.
Russia said on Tuesday Ukraine had attacked Moscow with at least five drones that were all shot down or jammed, though one of the capital's airports rerouted flights for several hours.
** Moscow says civilians hit in Makiivka attack that Kyiv says destroyed Russian unit
Ukraine's military said late on Tuesday that it destroyed a formation of Russian forces in the Moscow-controlled Makiivka in the Donetsk region, while Russia-installed officials said that one civilian died and 36 were injured in Kyiv's attacks.
"As a result of precision firing by Defence Forces units, another formation of Russian terrorists in the temporarily occupied Makiivka ceased to exist," the strategic communication office of Ukraine's Armed Forces said.
In an accompanying video on the Telegram messaging app, the communication office showed what looked like explosions in a sparsely built-up area.
Russia-installed representatives in part of Ukraine's Donetsk region now controlled by Moscow and where Makiivka is situated said on the Telegram messaging app that one man died and at least 36 people were injured.
Denis Pushilin, the Russia-installed head of those parts of Donetsk that Moscow controls said that among the injured were a 33-month-old baby and a 7-year-old boy.
"Late in the evening, the enemy launched fierce attacks on residential areas and a hospital complex," Pushilin said on his Telegram channel.
Reuters could not independently verify either of the reports. Both sides deny targeting civilians in the 16-month war that Russia has been waging against its neighbour.
On New Year's Day, at least 89 Russian troops were killed in a Ukrainian attack on Russian military quarters in Makiivka.
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Ukraine shifts its counteroffensive focus
The “maximum destruction” of Russian military personnel and hardware is currently “the number one task” for Ukraine, the country’s national security chief, Aleksey Danilov, has claimed.
“At this stage of active hostilities, Ukraine’s Defense Forces are fulfilling the number one task – the maximum destruction of manpower, equipment, fuel depots, military vehicles, command posts artillery and air defense forces of the Russian army,” Danilov said in a Twitter post on Tuesday, claiming that the “last few days have been particularly fruitful.”
“Now the war of destruction is equal to the war of kilometers. More destroyed means more liberated,” he added.
Danilov’s remark is the latest in an apparent damage-control effort launched by Kiev to explain the lack of any meaningful results in its long-heralded counteroffensive effort, which has been going on for about a month already. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky acknowledged in mid-June that the progress of the counteroffensive was “slower than desired.”
Multiple senior Ukrainian officials have insisted that expectations about the campaign have been blown out of proportion, with Ukrainian Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov even claiming the intense warfare was merely a “preview” and totally “not the main event,” which had been hyped up for months.
The counteroffensive “preview” has resulted in heavy casualties for the Ukrainian military, which lost thousands of personnel and hundreds of pieces of hardware over the past month, including multiple Western-supplied combat vehicles such as US-made Bradley IFVs and German-made Leopard 2 tanks.
Thus far, Kiev has lost 16 Leopard 2 tanks, which, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Monday, “practically amounts to 100% of the tanks of this type supplied by Poland and Portugal.” He further alleged that Ukraine’s foreign sponsors were pressuring Kiev to continue assaults on Russian positions despite the loss of some 2,500 pieces of heavy weaponry during the conflict.
** Russian air defenses down two Ukrainian Su-25 ground attack planes over past day
Russian air defense forces shot down two Ukrainian Su-25 ground attack planes, intercepted five rockets of the US-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket system and destroyed 14 enemy drones over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Tuesday.
"Air defense capabilities shot down two Ukrainian Air Force Su-25 planes near the settlements of Georgiyevka in the Donetsk People’s Republic and Orekhov in the Zaporozhye Region. Five rockets of the HIMARS multiple launch rocket system were intercepted over the past 24 hours," the spokesman said.
In addition, Russian air defenses destroyed 14 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles in areas near the settlements of Ploshchanka and Topolevka in the Lugansk People’s Republic, Krynki and Sagy in the Kherson Region, Gladkoye, Nesteryanka and Inzhenernoye in the Zaporozhye Region, the general reported.
Reuters/RT/Tass
