Ukraine makes ‘tactically significant’ progress against Russia in counteroffensive
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A Ukrainian artillery unit fires its mobile howitzer at a Russian position in southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
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KYIV - After months of inching through minefields, villages and open steppes in gruelling combat, Ukrainian forces are making somewhat bigger advances along two major lines of attack, according to analysts, Ukrainian officials and Russian military bloggers.
The amount of territory seized, 16km to 19km on both vectors of attack, while relatively small, is important in that it is compelling Russia to divert forces from other parts of the front line, military analysts say.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think-tank, called the advances “tactically significant”, saying that Moscow’s redeployment “will likely further weaken Russian defensive lines in aggregate”, creating “opportunities for any Ukrainian breakthrough to be potentially decisive”.
The Ukrainian military launched the counteroffensive this summer
But those hopes were dashed amid heavy losses, causing commanders to change strategy from head-on assaults to a war of attrition, content to make steady, small gains while conserving resources and degrading those of the Russians.
Explosions echoed on Saturday as the Russian military said it had shot down two Ukrainian missiles targeting the Kerch Strait bridge, a vital Russian link to the occupied Crimean peninsula that Kyiv has vowed to keep attacking until it is unusable.
The Russian Ministry of Defence said Ukrainian forces attacked the bridge with two S-200 surface-to-air missiles with a range of just over 300km.
Mr Sergei Aksyonov, the top Russian-installed official in Crimea, said the bridge was not damaged.
The Russian accounts could not be independently verified, and Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment.
In the ground war, Ukrainian forces are advancing south along two principal lines of attack: through the eastern village of Staromaiorske
Ukrainian forces have progressed about 16km to 19km along both lines from their starting places at the outset of the counteroffensive in early June.
Ukraine’s goal is to reach the Sea of Azov and drive a wedge into the so-called land bridge between Russia and Crimea, which is vital to the Russian military’s supply routes to the west. NYTIMES
