In the Donetsk region, the Ukrainian armed forces make minor breakthroughs. A Russian commander complains that this is also due to a lack of supplies.
Moscow/Kyiv – Tue Counteroffensive of Ukraine has been going on for several weeks now, after only sluggish successes were reported at first, reports are now piling up that Ukraine has made a breakthrough here and there. The Russian side hardly gets a chance to speak, and critical voices are given no space in the Russian media.
However, a commander of the Russian army has now publicly criticized his own military leadership, according to the US news magazine Newsweek reported. His battalion was pushed out of the village of Urozhaine in the Donetsk region. Support, which he had repeatedly requested, had not arrived.
Russian Soldier Laments Missing Units: Fighting With “Bad Forces”
Alexander Khodakowski is the commander of the Vostok Battalion. On Telegram he reports on the attack by Ukrainian forces, which drove his soldiers to flee. Ukrainian fighters inflicted heavy losses on them. Chodakowski complains that nobody is there to help them. “The battles will be fought with the available forces. Let’s just say – with bad powers.”
“Of course we suffered losses,” continued Chodakowski. Nevertheless, his men “did not give up a single house without a fight”. The Russian armed forces are “squeezing out everything they can”. So every small victory for the enemy would become a “Pyrrhic victory”.
War in Ukraine: Reports of Ukrainian Successes in the South and Southeast
The deputy Ukrainian Defense Minister Hanna Maliar reported on Monday about the continued counter-offensive on the southern Zaporizhia and south-eastern Donetsk fronts. Ukrainian forces had achieved successes at Urozhaine and the neighboring town of Staromayorske, she wrote in a telegram.
“The enemy constantly makes unsuccessful attempts to restore the lost position in the Staromayorske district,” Maliar wrote. Maliar later explained that the heavy fighting for the city of Bakhmut, which was an epicenter of fighting for several months, go on. “In the past week, the liberated area in the Bakhmut direction has been increased by three square kilometers, the total liberated area in the Bakhmut direction is 40 square kilometers,” she said.
Video: Deaths in Russian attacks on western Ukraine
Meanwhile, in the northeastern regions of Kharkiv and Luhansk, Russia has massed an assault force apparently intended to divert attention and resources from Ukraine’s offensive in the south. “The enemy continues offensive actions in the east,” writes Maliar. “There has been some reduction in enemy fire and ammunition, but that doesn’t mean the enemy is backing down on their plans.”
Maliar described the situation on the battlefields near Kupyansk and Lyman as difficult. “The enemy is constantly attacking,” she said. “Our troops are repelling the attacks.” In the Kupyansk area, Russian troops are looking for weaknesses in Ukrainian defenses along the Ukraine-Russia border, Maliar said. (fmu)
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