- Troops fight through heavy minefields
- NATO chief says Ukrainian commanders must be trusted
- Ukraine has increased its drone attacks on Russia
KYIV, Aug 31 (Portal) – Ukraine on Thursday voiced criticism over the pace of its three-month-long “shut up” counteroffensive, the sharpest sign yet of Kiev’s frustration over revelations from Western officials who say the armed forces are too advance slowly.
Since launching a much-vaunted counteroffensive using billions of dollars’ worth of Western military equipment, Ukraine has recaptured more than a dozen villages but has yet to break through Russia’s main defenses.
Reports in the New York Times, Washington Post and other news organizations last week quoted U.S. and other Western officials as saying the offensive had fallen short of expectations. Some criticized Ukraine’s strategy, accusing it of concentrating its forces in the wrong places.
Moscow says the Ukrainian election campaign has already failed. Ukrainian commanders say they are deliberately moving slowly and weakening Russia’s defenses and logistics to reduce casualties when they eventually attack at full strength.
“Criticizing the slow pace of the counteroffensive is tantamount to spitting in the face of the Ukrainian soldier who sacrifices his life every day, moving forward and liberating one kilometer of Ukrainian soil after another,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters on Thursday.
“I would recommend to all critics to shut up, come to Ukraine and try to free up a square centimeter themselves,” he said at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Spain.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told CNN that Ukrainian commanders deserved the benefit of the doubt.
“Ukrainians have consistently exceeded expectations,” he said. “We have to trust them. We advise, we help, we support. But… it is the Ukrainians who have to make these decisions.”
DEFENSE LINES
After months of fighting through heavy minefields, Ukrainian forces in recent days have finally reached key Russian defense lines south of the village of Robotyne, which they captured last week in the West Zaporizhzhia region.
They are now advancing between the nearby villages of Novopokropivka and Verbowe, looking for a way to bypass the anti-tank ditches and rows of concrete pyramids known as Dragon’s Teeth that form Russia’s main fortifications, visible from space.
A breakthrough would be the first test of Russia’s deeper defenses, which Ukraine hopes will be more vulnerable and less heavily mined than the areas its troops have traversed so far.
A Ukrainian commander in the area told Portal last week that his men had broken through the most difficult line and reached less heavily defended areas and were now expected to advance more quickly. Portal could not independently verify this.
Kiev rarely releases details of its offensive operations.
In a statement Thursday, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar reported unspecified successes near Novopokropivka, without giving details.
She also said Ukrainian forces were advancing near Bakhmut in the east, the only city Russia captured in its own offensive earlier this year. Heavy fighting had engulfed villages south of the city, she said.
Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of the Ukrainian ground forces, reported “positive dynamics” near Bakhmut.
DRONE ATTACKS IN RUSSIA
Ukraine has also increased its drone strikes on targets deep inside Russia and in Russian-controlled areas in Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it destroyed a new Ukrainian drone over the Bryansk region in southern Russia.
She had previously reported on nighttime drone strikes in Bryansk and said she had shot down a missile fired at Crimea, which was occupied and annexed by Russia in 2014.
Last night, Moscow reported attempted Ukrainian drone strikes in six Russian regions, including one that sparked a major fire at a military air base in Pskov, northern Russia, and damaged several giant military transport planes on the tarmac.
While Ukraine rarely comments directly on specific attacks inside Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky twice appeared to brag about the attack in Pskov on Thursday.
“The results of our weapons – new Ukrainian weapons – are 700 km away,” he said in his evening video address. “And the task is to do more.”
Ukraine’s Western allies generally ban Kiev from using weapons it supplies to attack Russian territory, but say Ukraine has the right to attack military targets with its own weapons.
The attacks in recent weeks, including several in central Moscow last month, have brought war home to many Russians for the first time after Russia subjected Ukraine to nationwide air strikes for 18 months.
Russia is also facing the fallout from a mutiny two months ago by the Wagner Private Army, which formed the main attack force of its own winter offensive earlier this year. Wagner’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and his captains died in a plane crash last week.
The Kremlin has denied being behind the crash. President Vladimir Putin had called Prigozhin’s mutiny a betrayal but promised not to punish him for it.
On Thursday, Prigozhin’s right-hand man, Dmitri Utkin, a neo-Nazi former military intelligence officer whose call sign Wagner gave the mercenary force its name, was buried in a cemetery near Moscow under the guard of Russian military police. Prigozhin was buried near St. Petersburg on Tuesday.
Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Alex Richardson and Cynthia Osterman
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