According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian army is counterattacking Russian troops at the front. “Counter-offensive and defensive actions” are currently taking place, but he will not give “any details”, Zelensky said in Kiev on Saturday. It was unclear whether the president was referring to the long-awaited counter-offensive that the Ukrainian military has been planning and announcing for months.
Asked about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comments on Friday that Ukraine’s counteroffensive had begun, Zelenskyy shrugged and raised an eyebrow. “It’s interesting what Putin said about our counter-offensive. It’s important that Russia always feels that, in my opinion, there isn’t much time left.”
The Ukrainian side announced silence about their major offensive. Putin stated that the deployment of the strategic reserve would speak for the start of the counter-offensive. So far, however, Ukrainian soldiers have been unsuccessful. Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday that Ukrainian troops had tried unsuccessfully to advance in the southern regions of Donetsk and Zaporizhia and the Bakhmut area in the east.
“Total losses of Ukrainian forces in the mentioned areas in one day amounted to 300 troops, 9 tanks including 4 Leopards and 11 armored vehicles including 5 American Bradleys,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in the Saturday. A French Cesar howitzer would also have been destroyed.
Reports from Ukraine differ. According to the military, Ukrainian troops advanced up to 1.4 kilometers in some places. “We are trying to attack the enemy, we are counterattacking,” the Eastern Command spokesman said on Saturday. Russian troops also launched attacks, but they were unsuccessful. Most often, information about the course of the war cannot be independently verified.
Britain celebrates military successes
According to the US Institute of War Studies (ISW), Ukraine counterattacked on at least four sectors of the front. The fighting took place near the city of Bakhmut, near the city of Kreminna, in the southwest of the Donetsk region and in the west of the Zaporizhia region, according to the latest situation report on Friday (local time), citing information from Kiev. , Moscow and Russian military bloggers .
Britain also assumes that the armed forces of the attacked country will make military advances. In the past 48 hours, there have been major Ukrainian military operations in the east and south of the country, the British Ministry of Defense said on Saturday. While good progress has been made in some areas and the Russian first line of defense has been breached, the Ukrainians are making slower progress in other areas. There would have been some credible defensive clashes on the Russian side. Other units, however, would have retreated in some disarray. Reports of casualties among Russian troops as they retreated through their own minefields mounted.
Furthermore, the British reported in their daily intelligence update that the Russian air force was unusually active in southern Ukraine. According to Ukrainian sources, three civilians were killed in a Russian air strike on the Black Sea port of Odessa. Debris from a downed drone crashed into an apartment block on Saturday night and caused a fire, the Ukrainian military said. According to rescuers, 27 people were injured, including three children.
The fire was quickly extinguished. The Ukrainian Air Force later said that Russia had directed a total of 35 drones and eight missiles against targets in Ukraine. 20 Iranian Shahed drones and two ballistic missiles were shot down. In addition to Odessa, Russian attacks also targeted targets in the Poltava region and Kharkiv. Regional governor Dmytro Lunin told the Telegram short message service that there was “some damage to infrastructure and equipment” at the Myrhorod military airfield.
Prime Minister of Canada in Kyiv
Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Kiev to show his support for Ukraine. In a meeting with Zelenskyy, he pledged an additional C$500 million (about €348 million) in military aid to Ukraine. At a memorial in central Kiev, he paid tribute to Ukrainian soldiers killed in action since 2014.
The surprise visit, which was also attended by Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, was planned under a strict news blackout, Ukrinform reported. Ottawa is considered one of Kiev’s biggest supporters in defending against the Russian war and has also given Ukraine Leopard-type tanks, among other things. Trudeau himself was in the Ukrainian capital in May 2022. At that time, he also drove to the badly damaged suburb of Irpin. (reu/dpa/afp/apa)