Ukrainian forces have retaken a small village within the south of the nation, an area Russian official and army bloggers mentioned on Sunday, one of many first studies of a territorial achieve within the Zaporizhzhia area for the reason that begin of a significant counteroffensive earlier this month.
Vladimir Rogov, a Kremlin-appointed regional official, mentioned on the Telegram messaging app that Ukrainian troops had taken the village of Piatykhatky “under operational control,” and have been entrenching themselves there. Russian forces, he added, have been utilizing artillery hearth in an try and wrest it again.
There was no impartial affirmation of these claims. The Ukrainian army’s nightly General Staff replace mentioned Russian forces have been “on the defensive” within the area, however made no point out of the village.
Piatykhatky is one in all many villages alongside the southern frontline and its recapture, if confirmed, is unlikely to characterize a significant army breakthrough for Ukraine. Still, it could be the primary village retaken in latest days, and add to the seven villages that Ukrainian officers mentioned they’d recaptured additional east within the Donetsk area as a part of the counteroffensive that started a few week and a half in the past.
“Our troops are advancing, position by position,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine mentioned in his nightly handle on Sunday. “Step by step, we are moving forward.”
Those positive factors to date have come at the price of Ukrainian lives and superior Western tools, however army analysts warning that it might take weeks or months to gauge the success of the counteroffensive.
An official assertion from the Russian Ministry of Defense summarizing the preventing on Sunday mentioned that an assault on Piatykhatky had been “repelled.” But Russian army bloggers, who are sometimes the primary to announce battlefield developments in Ukraine, mentioned Moscow’s forces had misplaced the village after three days of intense preventing.
“Our artillery continues to strike at the enemy infantry, entrenched in this village,” wrote Semyon Pegov, who writes below the identify War Gonzo and has greater than 1.3 million followers on Telegram. Mr. Pegov was among the many pro-Kremlin battle correspondents who met with President Vladimir V. Putin final week.
Mikhail Zvinchuk, who writes below the pseudonym Rybar, mentioned that Russian items had retreated from the village, however that the preventing continued on its outskirts. Another weblog known as A Veteran’s Notes, which aggregates different studies together with some commentary and evaluation, described ferocious preventing within the space.
A big Ukrainian drive was making a sustained try to interrupt by way of Russia’s defensive strains, the unnamed blogger wrote, with losses on each side and the stench of useless our bodies drifting over the battlefield. “Many wounded due to continuous artillery shelling,” the account mentioned.
Ukraine’s counteroffensive has intensified the preventing at a number of factors alongside the entrance line within the south, however has proven little signal of a big breakthrough to date. A British protection intelligence report mentioned on Sunday that each side have been struggling excessive casualties and army specialists say that it’s probably that months of artillery duels and trench warfare lie forward. Independent analysts say that it is going to be tough for Ukrainian forces to interrupt by way of closely fortified Russian strains defended by tank traps, minefields and artillery.
In hopes of creating it more durable for Russia to fend off the counterattack, Ukraine has adopted a sample it established final yr of launching a collection of strikes behind the entrance strains that concentrate on ammunition dumps, army infrastructure and different parts of Moscow’s battle machine.
Military officers mentioned on Sunday that Ukraine had struck an ammunition dump close to the village of Rykove, within the Kherson area. The claims couldn’t be instantly verified, however satellite tv for pc imagery reviewed by The Times confirmed heavy harm in an industrial space adjoining to a rail line in Rykove, with smoke nonetheless rising from the particles on Sunday morning.
Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the Odesa army administration, posted video footage on the Telegram messaging app that was taken from a distance however appeared to point out a big hearth and smoke billowing above fields.
“Our armed forces dealt a good blow in the morning, and a very loud one, in the village of Rykove,” Mr. Bratchuk wrote. There was no instant remark from Russian authorities.
The space is critical as a result of it’s near a bridge connecting Crimea — which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014 — with a belt of land occupied by Russia north of the Sea of Azov. Military analysts say that one of many possible targets of the counteroffensive is to chop the land bridge that connects Crimea to Russia.
Rykove is about 70 miles behind the closest space of the entrance line, the Dnipro River, the place Ukrainian forces management the west financial institution and Russian forces the east. It was not clear how the assault came about, however that might put the village within the vary of an assault by a long-range Storm Shadow missile, which Britain mentioned in latest weeks it had donated to Ukraine. The U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket can also be able to hitting targets dozens of miles behind the entrance strains.
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Dam catastrophe: As Ukraine pursues its counteroffensive, it continues to cope with the aftermath of an explosion on June 6 that destroyed the Kakhovka dam on the decrease Dnipro River, flooding components of the Kherson area and elsewhere and inflicting environmental devastation.
The demise toll continued to climb on Sunday. In the Ukrainian-held territory, 17 folks have died within the flooding and 31 others are lacking, the Ministry of Internal Affairs mentioned in a Telegram publish. In the Russia-occupied portion of the Kherson area, a Kremlin-backed official, Andrei Alekseyenko, reported six extra deaths, elevating the demise toll to 35.
Moscow has blamed Ukraine for the explosion, however proof means that the dam, which was managed by Russian forces, was destroyed from inside.
Denise Brown, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine, mentioned in a press release on Sunday that the Kremlin had declined a request to entry Russian-controlled areas to offer emergency help. “Aid cannot be denied to people who need it,” she mentioned.
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Border shelling: Ukrainian and Russian officers reported shelling in civilian areas on each side of Ukraine’s northeastern border on Sunday. Roman Starovoit, the governor of Russia’s Kursk area, mentioned that Ukraine had focused three settlements within the Glushkovsky district. Across the border, about 40 miles away, a father and his 4-year-old son have been killed by shelling in Ukraine’s Sumy area, the nation’s Ministry of Internal Affairs mentioned.
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NATO membership: President Biden has been going through stress from Ukraine’s allies to hasten Ukraine’s NATO membership bid and provide a extra sure path to becoming a member of the alliance, however he has not but modified his stance. On Saturday, Mr. Biden appeared to strengthen that place, suggesting that there can be no fast route for Ukraine, which submitted an utility to affix the alliance final September.
“They’ve got to meet the same standards. So we’re not going to make it easy,” the president informed reporters. Membership within the alliance, which might put Ukraine below NATO’s safety umbrella, is seen by Mr. Zelensky as a core strategic goal. It will most likely be mentioned subsequent month at a NATO summit in Lithuania.
Gabriela Sá Pessoa contributed reporting.
Source: www.nytimes.com