With probes of Russian lines, Ukraine’s counteroffensive takes shape
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Ukrainian servicemen ride a BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle, near the front-line city of Bakhmut, in Ukraine's Donetsk region.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine - In the south, Ukrainian soldiers are fighting on an unforgiving landscape, table-flat farmland with little cover for troops trying to advance.
And a 100km away, they are attacking across the plains, pushing towards a strategic railway junction.
Farther east, they are targeting Russian positions on the hills outside Bakhmut, a city in ruins that fell to Russian forces last month after the longest and bloodiest battle of the war.
In fierce battles along the front line this past week, Ukraine’s counteroffensive is taking shape, presenting a major pivot in the war.
With each clash, Ukraine is trying to show that it can attack anywhere, while trying to make Russia defend everywhere.
After days of silence on the extent of the fighting, President Volodymyr Zelensky offered the strongest confirmation yet on Saturday that the long-awaited counteroffensive had begun.
“Counteroffensive and defensive actions are being taken in Ukraine,” he said, at a news conference in Kyiv, Ukraine.
“At what stage, I will not disclose in detail.”
The multipronged assault, concentrated along the front in the south and the east, is a test run of Ukraine’s new arsenal of Western tanks and armoured vehicles as well as tens of thousands of newly mobilised soldiers who trained in Europe for months in preparation for the fighting.
Kyiv, which as expected in the early stages is suffering casualties, will need to show significant progress in its counteroffensive to keep the money and weapons flowing from the West.
Over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian forces firing rockets and artillery hit four Russian command centres; six areas of concentration of personnel, weapons and military equipment; three ammunition depots; and five enemy artillery units in firing positions, Ukraine’s military said.
The claims could not be independently verified.
Members of the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at the front line, south of Bakhmut, Ukraine.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
The flurry of initial attacks, staged under a cloak of secrecy by the Ukrainian army, are intended to probe for weak points and lure Russia into revealing its defensive strategies too soon, before the bulk of Ukraine’s new force is put into the fight.
Once in full motion, Ukraine’s counteroffensive is expected to be one of the largest military operations in Europe since World War II.
American officials, who said in recent days that the counteroffensive appeared to be under way, have said it is too early to make broad assessments, although they have generally been bullish on the prospects for Ukraine’s counteroffensive. NYTIMES
