Ukraine launches ‘main thrust’ of counteroffensive, punches through Russian defenses

Ukrainian forces stepped up their counteroffensive in the southeast of the country, where US officials said Kyiv has launched its “main thrust” aimed at breaking through Russia’s defenses.

“Hostilities have intensified significantly,” Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed Wednesday — but claimed that Moscow’s forces were repelling the Ukrainians’ onslaught.

Putin praised the “heroism” of his troops fighting in the Zaporizhzhia region, saying that the Russian forces inflicted heavy losses and that Kyiv’s push “wasn’t successful.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed its troops had beaten back Ukrainian attacks around the village of Klishchiivka near Bakhmut, and north of the town of Robotyne on the front line in the Zaporizhzhia region, Russian state news agency TASS reported.

However, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar wrote on her Telegram channel that Ukrainian forces were “gradually moving forward” near Bakhmut in the east and that fighting was ongoing near Klishchiivka, Kurdyumivka and Andriivka.

Maliar also said Ukraine had repelled Russian attacks on two northern fronts near Kupiansk and Lyman.

Neither side had provided any evidence to back up its claims concerning the situation on the battlefield.

Ukrainian forces launched “a significant mechanized counteroffensive operation” in western Zaporizhzhia and “appear to have broken through certain pre-prepared Russian defensive positions,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, reported in its latest update.

Geolocated footage obtained by the institute’s analysts reportedly showed that Ukrainian forces likely advanced to within 1.5 miles east of Robotyne.

The scale of the attack remained unclear, with Russian military bloggers claiming that Kyiv’s forces had deployed anywhere between 30 and 80 armored vehicles in the push.

Additional footage taken Tuesday indicated that Kyiv’s troops have made significant territorial gains south of the town of Klishchiivka outside of Bakhmut in the east, where Maliar claimed Russians were dying at a rate eight times higher than Ukrainians.

The Ukrainian General Staff also reported offensive maneuvers in the Melitopol and Berdyansk directions, where Maliar put the enemy’s losses at more than five times higher than those of Kyiv’s forces.

Several US officials, speaking to news outlets on condition of anonymity, said that the goal of Ukraine’s new push — described as the “main thrust” — was to liberate nearly 20% of its occupied land.

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry remained tight-lipped about the situation on the front lines, with senior adviser Yuriy Sak only saying that Kyiv’s forces in the south were “moving forward slowly but surely.”

Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which was launched in early June, so far has been slow-moving, only recapturing several hundred square miles of territory due to the presence of vast minefields and fortified Russian defenses.  

However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address Wednesday that his forces “had very good results today” on the battlefield and promised to share details later.

One of the few areas where Kyiv has enjoyed success has been along the Mokri Yaly river in southeastern Ukraine, where its troops on Thursday recaptured the village of Staromaiorske from Russian forces in the Donetsk region.

“The 35th brigade and the ‘Ariy’ territorial defense unit have fulfilled their task and liberated the village of Staromaiorske. Glory to Ukraine!” a soldier said in a video shared on social media by Zelensky.

Seizing the village could open the way for Ukrainian forces to push southward toward the coast.

Kyiv’s troops were also advancing toward the city of Melitopol near the Sea of Azov in the Zaporizhizhia region, according to Maliar.

Were Kyiv to take Melitopol, it could bring it one step closer to breaking through the Russia-held land corridor linking the annexed Crimean Peninsula to mainland Russia, splitting Moscow’s forces in two and cutting their supply lines.

Ukraine’s Western allies, which have supplied billions of dollars worth of military equipment and ammunition for Kyiv’s counteroffensive, remained optimistic but cautioned against expecting a quick victory.

“We believe that tools, the equipment, the training, the advice that many of us have shared with Ukrainians over many months puts them in good position to be successful on the ground in recovering more of the territory that Russia has taken from Ukraine,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on a visit to New Zealand.

With Post wires