Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised his troops after Ukrainian forces advanced on various sections of the front line with Russia amid speculation that increased combat activities could indicate that kyiv’s long-awaited counteroffensive it starts up.
In his late-night video speech on Monday, Zelenskyy mocked what he described as Russia’s hysterical reaction to every operation undertaken by Ukrainian forces, singling out two Ukrainian units “skillfully, decisively and effectively defending our positions, destroying the occupiers and, most importantly, they move forward.”
“I am grateful to each of our warriors, to all of our defenders who gave us the news we were waiting for. Bakhmut’s address: well done, warriors!” Zelenskyy said in his speech that he did not directly address whether the long-awaited counteroffensive had begun.
“We see how hysterically Russia perceives every step we take there, every position we take,” he said.
“The enemy knows that Ukraine will win. They see it. They feel it thanks to their strikes, soldiers and in particular in the Donetsk region. Thanks for that.”
Although the global trend is clear: Russia will lose this war, Russia’s rulers continue to deny the reality. They continue to try to fool the world, circumvent sanctions, produce more weapons, ensure that more resources and people are spent on this aggression… We are… pic.twitter.com/ymcYWrlo2F
— Volodymyr Zelensky (@ZelenskyyUa) June 5, 2023
Ukraine’s ground forces commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Monday that his troops continued “advancing” near Bakhmut. Russian fighters and officials said the situation there was “very difficult”, despite Moscow claiming to have captured the city late last month after what became the longest and bloodiest battle of the war. Ukraine had insisted that its forces maintain a small foothold in the eastern city.
Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar also said Ukraine was “switching to offensive actions” on parts of the front, but dismissed suggestions that this was part of a major operation.
Countering those claims, Russia’s military said it foiled two large-scale Ukrainian offensives against its forces in eastern Ukraine since Sunday and inflicted heavy losses on Ukrainian forces in what appeared to be an attempt by Moscow to present the activity. military as the beginning of the Ukrainian counter-offensive that was failing early.
“The enemy launched a full-scale offensive on five sectors of the front in the direction south of Donetsk,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
“The enemy did not achieve its tasks, it was not successful,” he said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed early Tuesday that eight of Ukraine’s German-made Leopard battle tanks were among 28 tanks destroyed in the fighting along with 109 armored vehicles and hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers killed.
But some pro-Kremlin military bloggers painted a different picture of the fighting, acknowledging that kyiv’s troops had made some quick gains. He Wagner head of Russia The Yevgeny Prigozhin mercenary group also said on Monday that Ukrainian troops had made progress near Bakhmut.
Russian troops, he said, were “slowly” leaving the village of Berkhivka near Bakhmut, which he said was a “shame.”
Wagner’s chief once again challenged Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian General Staff, and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to go to the front and force Russian troops to resist and fight.
kyiv is officially silent on starting any counteroffensive despite analyst speculation that an offensive campaign against Russian forces has begun.
A video Ukraine posted over the weekend shows several of its soldiers in full combat gear putting a finger to their lips.
“Plans love silence. There will be no start announcement,” say the words that flash on the screen afterwards, followed by fighter jets in flight.
‘kyiv is looking for Russia’s weak points’
Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from kyiv, said there was “growing evidence of intensifying fighting in various places along the front line.”
“Whether this represents the beginning of the long-awaited Ukrainian counter-offensive and the efforts of the Ukrainian forces to find weak points in the Russian defense or, in fact, these are small probing attacks before a larger scale operation, that will become clear in the next few days,” he said.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington, DC-based think tank, said on Tuesday that it had also observed an increase in fighting in different sectors of the front line amid signals from Russian officials. and Ukrainians that the counteroffensive has begun.
“Ukrainian forces are making territorial gains despite Russian claims to the contrary,” ISW said, noting that Moscow had a history of claiming battlefield defeats in Ukraine that later turned out to be successes for Kiev.
Russian and Ukrainian officials are signaling the start of the Ukrainian #counteroffensive. ISW has observed increased combat activity in different sectors of the front line and assesses that Ukrainian forces are making territorial gains despite Russian claims to the contrary.🧵⬇️
— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) June 5, 2023
“Historically, Russian officials have immediately claimed that Ukrainian counteroffensives failed even when the counteroffensives ultimately succeeded,” ISW said.
“A successful counteroffensive operation can take days, weeks or even months before its outcome is fully clear, during which time Russian sources can falsely claim they have defeated it,” the institute said.
Military analysts say Ukraine has tried to hide its strategic intentions by launching multiple attacks on various sectors of the front line in recent weeks to force Russia to disperse its resources and divert them from where the main attack would be launched.
“kyiv is looking for Russia’s weak points and trying to spread the front” as wide as possible,” said Ukrainian military analyst Roman Svitan.
For months, tens of thousands of Russian soldiers have been digging in along a front line that stretches for roughly 1,000 km (600 miles), preparing for a Ukrainian attack that is expected to try to cut Russia’s so-called land bridge. to the Crimean Peninsula. Many military experts expect Ukraine to try to break through Russian defenses to the Azov Sea coast to break the land corridor to Russian-controlled Crimea.
The Washington Post reported that some officials in Washington thought the counter-offensive was underway, but US White House national security spokesman John Kirby declined to say whether he thought that was the case.
“I am not going to speak for the Ukrainian army. That’s for them to talk about,” he said at a regular briefing, though he stressed the work the United States had done to ensure the Ukrainians were ready.
“So whether it starts now, or it starts soon, or when they decide to escalate and whatever they decide to do, the president is confident that we did everything we could over the last six, eight months or longer to make sure that they had everything. the equipment, the training, the skills to succeed.”
Sir Richard Barrons, former commander of the UK’s Joint Forces Command, said a counter-offensive would not unfold on a set time scale.
“We need to understand that what we call the Ukraine counter-offensive is not like a football game,” he said.
“It’s not going to be done and dusted off in 90 minutes with a halftime on a designated day. It’s been at least nine months of preparation in the sense that they’ve had to gather NATO weapons and ammunition. Not enough, I think, until now,” he said.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told Reuters on Monday that Ukraine now had enough weapons for a counteroffensive, but declined to comment when asked if it had started.
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