The Ukrainian counter-offensive has been making progress, but has entered its third week with mixed results in the face of air superiority and kilometre-long defensive lines of Russian forces, especially in the east and south-east of Zaporijia.
The Ukrainian balance so far is eight small localities recaptured south of Donetsk and in Zaporijia, the last being Piatijatki, which was taken after a hard-fought battle, according to a video published today by the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar acknowledged, for her part, that the situation “in the east is difficult” because Russia is conducting an offensive targeting Liman (Donetsk) and Kupiansk (Kharkiv) to try to take the initiative away from Kiev.
To do this, it has “concentrated a significant number of its units in the east, especially air assault units”, Hanna Malear stressed.
On the other hand, Kiev’s troops, in an attempt to reach the occupied cities of Berdiansk and Melitopol to break the land corridor created along the Sea of Azov, pushed Russian forces into Zaporijia at a distance of seven kilometres and liberated 113 square kilometres, she added.
Russia’s Defence Ministry has not acknowledged the loss of any towns and continues to claim daily that it is repelling Ukrainian attacks.
However, the chairman of the “Together with Russia” movement in Zaporijia, Vladimir Rogov, admitted the day before the loss of operational control of Piatikhatki, while stating today that Ukrainian soldiers “launched another offensive in the direction of Orikhiv”, one of the epicentres of the battles in the south-east.
From Piatijatki, the Ukrainians can reach Vasilivka, through which a major highway leads south to Melitopol, near the Sea of Azov, which is an important logistics and supply centre for Russian troops.
In Orijiv, Kiev troops have also advanced south to Tokmak, from where two highways depart to Melitopol and Berdiansk, but the road to these strategic points in Zaporijia will not be easy for the Ukrainian Army.
Russia began building an extensive defensive line in October, starting in Crimea, running through southern and eastern Ukraine and extending on the Russian side of the border with Belarus.
British intelligence warned today that in the last ten days Russia has begun redeploying elements of the Dnieper force group from the left bank of the river of the same name to “reinforce the Zaporijia and Bakhmut sectors” in the Donbass.
The UK believes that Russia may have gained a temporary advantage in the south, especially with attack helicopters that employ long-range missiles against ground targets.
