Ukraine stepped up attacks on Russian arsenals and other targets deep in the occupied territory this weekend in support of a counteroffensive that has made modest progress against heavily fortified Russian frontlines.
A series of large explosions rocked a village in a Russian-occupied area of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region overnight in what local officials said was a successful attack on an ammunition depot.
“Good job guys. More firepower,” Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on the Telegram channel on Sunday, posting a video Hours of explosion.
Ukrainian officials said the strike took place in the village of Rykove, 170 kilometers south of the nearest front line, where Kiev forces made limited progress early this month in a broader counteroffensive.
Amid fierce fighting, Ukraine said last week that its forces had so far liberated about 100 square kilometers of territory in the region, including some villages.
What you see is a snapshot of the interactive graph. This is most likely because you are offline or JavaScript is disabled in your browser.
Vladimir Rogov, the Russian-appointed leader of the occupied region of southern Ukraine’s Zaporozhye region, acknowledged on Sunday that Ukrainian troops had seized Pyatykhatky, south of the earlier liberated Lobkove. village.
“Despite heavy losses, the enemy’s wave of attacks is bearing fruit,” Rogov said on the Telegram channel. On Sunday, the Russian Ministry of Defense made no mention of Pyatykhatky, claiming to have thwarted Ukrainian attacks in Zaporozhye and Donets attacks in the Croatian region.
Ukrainian forces in the early stages of the counteroffensive focused on softening infantry forward positions with long-range missile and artillery strikes. The Ukrainian army has also been testing the weaknesses of the more than 1,000-kilometer front in Russia’s southeastern region.
Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavsky, commander of the southern Ukrainian forces, claimed that 12 Russian ammunition depots had been destroyed in the past 24 hours. “For Russians, every day has become hell,” he said.
A Ukrainian tank fires on Russian positions near Bakhmut © Libkos/AP
The Ministry of Defense said on Sunday that while casualties were heavy on both sides, Russian losses were likely to be “the highest since the height of the Bakhmut battle in March”.
The long-awaited Ukrainian counteroffensive began this month as Ukrainian forces began a renewed effort to gradually retake southern territory, an area that has reportedly been slow of late.
Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Volodymyr Gavrylov pointed to the importance of long-range, high-precision strikes in shaping the battlefield. Ukraine did not say whether Britain-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles, which have a range of up to 550 kilometers, were used in this weekend’s attack.
Cyril Ramaphosa with Vladimir Putin on Saturday in St. Petersburg (Ramil Sitdikov/RIA Novosti via AP)
Hours after a delegation of African leaders led by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa renewed their call for “de-escalation” during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on Saturday The situation is getting worse.
“We believe that now is the time for both sides to start negotiations and end this war,” Ramaphosa told Putin, stressing that the disruption of food supplies in the Black Sea region was hurting his continent.
Meeting with African peace missions in Kiev on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would be ready for peace talks after Russian troops withdraw from Ukraine. Zelensky said he would not agree to a “freeze of war” to give Russian forces time to regroup and restart their faltering invasion.