Ukraine’s military is steadily pushing back Russian forces across two heavily fortified fronts in the east and south of the country as it reclaims territory claimed by Vladimir Putin as part of Russia.
In a map released as part of its daily briefing on Tuesday, Russia’s defense ministry showed its forces had retreated about 30 km in the southern Kherson region from Zolota Balka to Dudchany in one day and they ceded almost all the little territory they still had in the east. Kharkiv region.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian reinforcements, including armored vehicles, were seen moving into the eastern Donbas region towards Lyman, a railway hub retaken three days ago, according to local reports. They were heading for Lysychansk, which has been held by Russia for more than three months and is the focus of Ukraine’s counteroffensive efforts in the east.
About 600 km to the south, Ukrainian soldiers forced entrenched Russian troops into what a US official called a “defensive crouch”. Heavy fighting has continued in cities such as Dudchany, crucial stops for the shipbuilding city of Kherson, which fell to Russia days after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February.
Simultaneous advances have allowed Ukraine to regain strategic territory. They have also demonstrated Kyiv’s ability to reuse captured Russian weapons and newly arrived Western weapons against an enemy still waiting for newly mobilized troops.
Ukrainian officials have been wary of discussing operational details, but Western allies briefed on the advance have described the operations, which target single Russian formations spread out over long distances with an overwhelming force that travels quickly through the night .
“In the vicinity of Kherson, we continue to see deliberate and calibrated operations by the Ukrainians as they continue their offensive,” a senior US military official said. “The [Russians] they’re fighting, obviously, but they’re in a defensive approach.”
In the east, the Ukrainian military was “picking the relatively easier targets to take some initiative,” another Western diplomat said, avoiding sending more troops to bog down in towns like Bakhmut, where they have faced the ‘Russian artillery for months. without much effect.
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Russia is trying to bolster its frontline forces with what Putin has called a “partial” mobilization of army reserves. Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defense minister, said on Tuesday that Russia had already called up 200,000 men.
The move, however, has proved unpopular at home, prompting hundreds of thousands to flee the country and leaving the Kremlin to blame local officials.
Movement on both fronts has been grueling, with no clear updates on casualties on either side. That compares with a counteroffensive in the northeast last month in which Ukrainian forces pushed almost all Russian troops to the border within days. “In the northeast, the Ukrainians moved through the Russian defenses like Swiss cheese, unlike in the south, where it will be more difficult,” said a second US military official.
The Ukrainian offensive in the south toward Kherson had clearly “gained some momentum,” according to one Western official, who added that even if it became militarily unsustainable for Russian forces, it was “unlikely that the Russian leadership would sanction a total withdrawal”. . . for political reasons”.
As a result, the official added, “the situation in the south could become increasingly messy,” with some 20,000 Russian troops on the west bank of the Dnipro potentially “desperate.” . . back to the river”.
The setbacks have proved inescapable on Russian state television, which has sought to blame Russia’s losses on Western support for Ukraine.
“Why do we advance meter by meter when they advance town by town? Why are things better for them now?” Olga Skabeyeva, host of a news talk show, asked Tuesday.
Igor Girkin, a former intelligence officer who led Russia’s first incursion into the Donbas region in 2014 and has been critical of the invasion army’s conduct, said on Tuesday that Ukraine “had the advantage in everything and even uses aviation” in the south. front, adding that there were reports of new progress from Ukraine in the east.
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Russian forces on both fronts were “exhausted,” said Serhiy Kazan, an adviser to Ukraine’s defense ministry. It follows months of attacks on Russian command centers, supply lines and weapons crates by US-supplied Himars, guided rockets that can reach deep behind front lines.
“They are not operating in a coordinated manner because we chose the right tactics to destroy their communications and supply lines,” he said.
The Ukrainian breakthrough came as Putin prepared to sign into law on Tuesday the annexation of four Ukrainian territories into the Russian Federation. Ukrainian troops have already pushed to the front line in two of those territories and are gaining momentum as Russia struggles to train, arm and mobilize newly recruited troops.
US intelligence had not seen a “large-scale” movement of Russian forces despite recent battlefield losses, an official said. The only part of the country where Russia was organizing a crime was in Bakhmut, in the mineral-rich eastern Donbas region, they added.
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