Russian troops still control large areas of land after more than 500 days of war.
Kyiv:
The Ukrainian army reported heavy fighting in the east and southeast on Tuesday, key battlegrounds in its drive to retake land seized by Russian invaders, and said its troops had repelled dozens of enemy attacks.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, expressing a degree of frustration over NATO’s failure to offer Ukraine a timetable for alliance membership, suggests that the early stages of a counter-offensive in those two regions are proceeding as planned.
But he also says he wishes progress was faster.
Russian front-line accounts also outlined clashes, including a successful defense of areas near the devastated city of Bakhmut, where Ukraine says its forces are gaining ground.
A spokesman for the General Staff of Ukraine, Andriy Kovaliov, said Ukrainian forces had beaten back a Russian advance, supported by artillery strikes near two towns north of Bakhmut that had been captured by Russian mercenaries in late May.
The volatile situation near Bakhmut has received a lot of attention, with Ukraine making gains on the southern outskirts of the city, especially the strategic village of Klishchiivka.
According to analysts, liberating the village, which is higher up, would give Ukrainian forces an operational advantage in potentially encircling Russian forces in Bakhmut.
Ukraine said on Monday it controlled the heights around the village, allowing it to fire on targets in Bakhmut itself.
Russia’s defense ministry said its forces had repelled nine attempted Ukrainian advances in the eastern region of Donetsk, including a drive near Kliishchivka.
In the south, Ukraine says it has recaptured a cluster of villages in the early stages of an advance into the Sea of Azov – aiming to destroy the Russian land bridge connecting eastern Ukraine to the Crimea peninsula it annexed in 2014. break.
Ukrainian General Oleksander Tarnavskyi wrote on Telegram that fighting raged throughout the sector, with his troops repelling 27 enemy attacks. He estimated Russian losses over 24 hours at the equivalent of several hundred dead and wounded.
Despite all the gains made by Ukraine in its counter-offensive, after more than 500 days of war, Russian forces still hold large swaths of land – some estimates say 17% of Ukraine’s territory.
Ukrainian military analyst Serhiy Hrabskyi said Ukraine’s advance to the coast was going well, taking into account Russian defense preparations and extensive mining.
“We note that in a month and a half of offensive operations, we have collected 25 percent of our resources,” he wrote on Espreso TV’s website. “If we continue at this rate, by simple arithmetic we are talking about four months
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