President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday warned Ukrainians that Russia was “throwing all its resources into a campaign to stop Kyiv’s troops” from pressing their counter-offensive while a top general reported new progress on the southern front.
Military analysts also suggest that the southward advance has not been easy for Ukrainian forces. Ukraine recently launched a counter-offensive to reclaim swathes of land in eastern and southern Ukraine that had been captured by Russian forces since the invasion was launched in February last year. The counter-offensive has focused on capturing villages in the southeast in a drive towards the Sea of Azov and areas near the eastern city of Bakhmut, all of which had been taken by Russian forces in May after months of battles.
According to Russian accounts, the Kremlin’s forces had repelled Ukrainian attacks in the Eastern Donetsk region, including around Bakhmut. “We must all understand very clearly, as clearly as possible, that Russian forces in our southern and eastern lands are doing everything they can in order to stop our soldiers,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address after meeting with top commanders on Friday.
Following the meeting, General Oleksander Tarnavskyi, commander of Ukrainian forces in the south, said that his troops were “systematically moving the enemy out of their positions”. Enemy losses in the past 24 hours amounted to at least 200, he said.
“In the south, the situation is very difficult in advancing towards Berdiansk,” military analyst Serhiy Hrabskyi told Ukrainian NV radio, referring to a port on the Sea of Azov. Ukrainian forces hope to cut off a land bridge Russian forces have established with the annexed Crimean peninsula. “They are moving on the village of Robotyne. The enemy is offering resistance to stop our advance southward.” Russia’s Defence Ministry, in its daily report, said its forces had repelled 16 Ukrainian attacks on the eastern front, including near the long-contested town of Maryinka and in the strategic village of Klishchiivka, on Bakhmut’s southern fringe.