KIEV, June 16 (Portal) – Ukrainian forces are advancing in the southern sectors of their counteroffensive against occupying Russian forces, Ukrainian military officials said on Friday.
The latest report on the counter-offensive, as well as a report on the “desperate resistance” by Russian troops in the east, was released as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said movement in the counter-offensive was “the most important thing”.
“Every soldier, every new step we take, every meter of Ukrainian land liberated from the enemy is of the utmost importance,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video message.
Portal could not verify the situation on the battlefield. Russia has not officially acknowledged Ukraine’s advances in the initial stages of a counteroffensive, saying it has inflicted heavy casualties on Kiev’s forces over the past 24 hours.
Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine Hanna Maliar told news app Telegram that troops are “taking active steps to advance in multiple directions at once.”
“They’ve had tactical successes in practically every sector our units are attacking in the south,” Maliar said. “They are making progress gradually. The advance is currently up to 2 km (1.3 miles) in each direction.”
In eastern Ukraine, Maliar said Russian forces were attempting to push Ukrainian forces away from established positions.
Ukrainian forces surrounding the devastated city of Bakhmut, captured by Russia last month, attempted to drive Russian forces out of the city’s outskirts.
Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi, in charge of Ukraine’s ground forces, had previously described the situation in the east as tense as Russia sent its best divisions into the Bakhmut sector, supported by artillery and aircraft.
“We continue to conduct offensive actions in separate directions, occupying dominant heights and forest strips with the aim of gradually driving the enemy out of the outskirts of Bakhmut. Realizing this, the enemy units put up desperate resistance,” Syrskyi said on Telegram.
Bakhmut has seen some of the fiercest fighting since the Russian invasion in February 2022. Ukraine’s military said last week it had begun pushing back Russian forces near Bakhmut.
Kiev said Thursday it regained control of an area about 100 square kilometers (38 square miles) in just over a week of its counteroffensive.
Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, commander of Ukraine’s troops in the southern Tavriia sector, said there had been 36 combat sorties and 578 attacks in that sector in the past 24 hours.
“Enemy casualties in dead and wounded amounted to more than four companies,” he wrote on Telegram. A company typically consists of 100-250 soldiers.
Reporting by Olena Harmash, editing by Timothy Heritage, Ron Popeski and Daniel Wallis
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