The president of Ukraine has praised his troops for retaking a village in the southeast of the nation, which has been dubbed a “significant” victory in the country’s ongoing counteroffensive.
Volodymyr Zelensky published a video of some soldiers holding the Ukrainian flag yesterday, claiming they had retaken Staromaiorske in the Donetsk area, which is close to the Zaporizhzhia province.
Our South! Zelensky exclaimed. Our men! Praise be to Ukraine!
On Wednesday, he added, “By the way, today our boys had very good results at the front,” to his weekly message. Well done to them!
It occurs while ferocious battle rages on in southeast Ukraine, where, according to a US research tank, Kyiv appears to have launched a “significant” attack that appeared to have “broken through” some Russian defences.
Recent engagements have been fought along a 1,000 km (600 km) front line, with Ukrainian military supported by equipment and training provided by the west.
Russian military bloggers have verified that Ukrainian forces had occupied a portion of the settlement, which was the target of recent Ukrainian attacks.
According to Zelenskyy, Ukraine has retaken the settlement of Staromaiorske in the southeast.
Although it was unable to objectively confirm Putin’s allegation, he emphasised on state television that the Ukrainian troops’ drive ‘wasn’t successful’ and claimed they incurred significant casualties. At an African leaders’ summit in St. Petersburg, the Russian president was there.
Since beginning their long-awaited counteroffensive in early June, Ukrainian troops have only made marginal gains, and Putin has often asserted that Ukraine has suffered significant losses without providing supporting data.
Generals in Kyiv have issued a warning that the hardened Russian defence line and the significant quantity of land mines that have been sown make quick results all but impossible.
A Western diplomat who was not authorised to openly discuss the topic claimed that Ukraine recently sent thousands of troops to the area.
Few operational information about the counteroffensive’s development have been made public by the authorities.
But on Wednesday, Hanna Maliar, the deputy defence minister, claimed that troops were moving closer to Melitopol, a city in the Zaporizhizhia region.
It would be a big victory for Ukraine to seize Melitopol in the Sea of Azov in order to breach the land border between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow unlawfully annexed in 2014.
That might divide the Russian army in half and cut off supplies to the westward-moving battalions. Currently, Russia is in charge of the entire Sea of Azov shore.
According to a study from the Washington-based Institute of Study of War, Ukrainian forces conducted ‘a large mechanised counteroffensive operation’ in western Zaporizhzhia on Wednesday and ‘look to have broken through certain pre-prepared Russian defensive lines.’
This week, Zelensky travelled to Dnipro, which is located north of Zaporizhzhia along the Dnieper River, where he met with military leaders to talk about air defences, ammunition supplies, and local recruitment.
He also went to a hospital that treated front-line soldiers with wounds. He expressed gratitude to the personnel and stressed the value of their job.
In the meantime, a missile attack in southern Ukraine’s Odesa region resulted in one civilian fatality and significant port infrastructure damage.
According to Governor Oleh Kiper of Odesa, it follows Moscow’s termination of a grain export arrangement.
It appears that the cruise missile was fired from the Red Sea.