Ukraine consolidating gains after recapturing strategic southern village

KYIV – The Ukrainian military said on Friday it was “consolidating” gains, after President Volodymyr Zelensky declared that Ukraine had retaken one southern village in a renewed push into Russian-occupied territory.

The village, Staromaiorske, had been under Russian occupation since the early months of the war and was reclaimed by Ukrainian troops under heavy fire from Russian aircraft and artillery.

“The battle for this village was difficult and long,” Ukraine’s 35th Brigade, which took part in the battle, said in a statement. “Every centimetre of liberation is the result of superhuman effort.”

The exact state of the fighting is hard to gauge.

Ukraine’s counteroffensive has focused on securing villages on its southward push and areas around the eastern city of Bakhmut, taken by Russian forces in May after months of battles.

Ukrainian officials have reported slow, steady progress.

Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged intensified Ukrainian attacks over the last few days, but said they had made no headway. He told Russian television that every Ukrainian assault had been beaten back, and that Moscow’s forces had inflicted significant losses on their opponents.

A US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Ukraine had deployed additional Western-trained troops to at least one axis in the counteroffensive, but had held back some.

Media reports spoke of a new phase in the campaign.

Ukrainian military analyst Oleksandr Kovalenko said the new focus of Ukrainian efforts on the southward drive was Staromlynivka, a village less than 5km away.

“It really serves as a stronghold for the Russian occupiers, the peak of the second defensive line in this location,” he said in an interview with the RBC UA media outlet.

Africa pushes for peace

African leaders, meanwhile, pressed Mr Putin on Friday to move ahead with their peace plan to end the Ukraine war and to renew a deal on the export of Ukrainian grain that Moscow tore up last week.

While not directly critical of Russia, their interventions on the

second day of a summit with Mr Putin

were more concerted and forceful than those that African countries have voiced until now.

They served as reminders to the Kremlin leader of the depth of African concern at the consequences of the war, especially rising food prices.

“This war must end, and it can end only on the basis of justice and reason,” African Union Commission chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat told Mr Putin and African leaders in St Petersburg.

“The disruptions of energy and grain supplies must end immediately. The grain deal must be extended for the benefit of all the peoples of the world, Africans in particular,” he said.

‘Methods of terrorists’

There is, however, little sign that Moscow will budge any time soon.

Mr Zelensky’s chief of staff said on Friday that Russia was threatening civilian vessels in the Black Sea, and urged the international community to condemn what he said were “the methods of terrorists”.

Russia last week

quit a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey

allowing Ukraine to safely export grain via the Black Sea and warned that ships heading to Ukrainian seaports could be considered military targets.

“Russian warships are threatening civilians in the Black Sea, violating all norms of international maritime law,” Mr Andriy Yermak, head of Mr Zelensky’s office, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

In a separate statement, Ukraine’s border guard service said it intercepted a warning communicated by a Russian warship to a civilian vessel near a Ukrainian port on Thursday.

The statement quoted the Russian party as saying: “I am warning you about the ban on movement to the ports of Ukraine.”

It added: “Also, the transport of any cargo to Ukraine is considered by the Russian side to be the potential transportation of military cargo.”

It was also quoted as saying the country of the vessel’s flag would be considered a party to the conflict in Ukraine. NYTIMES, REUTERS