Ukraine ramps up operations as dam destruction blame game unfolds | Russia-Ukraine war News

An uptick in Ukraine’s military activities, a series of cross-border attacks by drones and armed groups and a mystery about who blew up a dam that flooded areas. land along the Dnipro River.

Events are rapidly unfolding in Russia’s war with Ukraine, now entering its 67th week.

The commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said his troops entered Bakhmut on Monday after a few days of lull.

“The direction of Bakhmut remains the focus of the wars. There, we are moving along a fairly wide front,” Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar confirmed on Telegram.

Maliar said Ukrainian troops advanced as far as 1,600 meters (5,250 feet) north of Bakhmut and 700 meters (2,300 feet) south in a flank maneuver.

Russia declared victory in Bakhmut On May 21 and nine days later, Ukraine admitted the city was in Russian hands after 10 months of bloody war.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukrainian forces on Sunday launched a “large-scale attack” on five areas of the eastern front. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russian forces repelled all attacks and killed 3,175 Ukrainian soldiers in 3 days.

The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said: “Russian sources have previously attempted to view Ukraine’s counter-attacks as an immediate failure, and Russian sources are likely trying to do the same with what they see as the start of the counter-attack announced by Ukraine.” a think tank.

Ukraine did not claim their counter-offensive had begun, but Maliar posted a video on her Telegram channel on Sunday showing Ukrainian soldiers raising their fingers to their lips. Her caption read: “Plans love silence. There will be no announcement of the start.”

‘Distracting attack’

There are other signs of an impending counterattack.

On Friday, The Washington Post reported that the Ukrainian armed forces are drawing corridors through their own minefields in the southern Zaporizhzhia region to allow units to launch an offensive.

And in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “we are ready” for a counterattack.

“We are confident that we will succeed. I don’t know how long this will take. Honestly, it could go in different, completely different ways. But we will do this,” said Zelenskyy.

When asked what the counterattack would look like, US special forces commander Colonel Seth Krummrich told Al Jazeera, “I think you’re going to get a spoiled attack. or a distracting attack. And then you’ll get a big punch or two.

“But I think we have to be careful not to sell too much on the counter-attack. It has only 12 battalions. There’s only so much you can do with that. I think we are going to see small and medium-sized benefits.”

Nine of Ukraine’s 12 mechanized battalions have been trained by NATO troops and are expected to spearhead the counterattack.

vandals

An increase in sabotage activity could also be a sign that a counterattack is underway.

Russian Volunteer Armya Russian anti-Putin paramilitary group operating from Ukraine, said the “second phase” of its operations began on June 1. The group posted footage showing its fighters in suburb of Shebekino, a Russian town 6km (2.8 miles) from Ukraine. boundary.

She also claimed responsibility for a raid in Russia’s Belgorod region on 24 May.

The Russian Freedom Corps has released geolocation footage showing its troops attacking Russian positions near Novaya Tavolzhanka, a settlement 3.5 kilometers (1.7 mi) from the Ukrainian border. also on June 1.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed to have prevented an “invasion”.

Yevgeny PrigozhinThe head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group and known as a critic of Russia’s defense establishment, threatened his forces to “come to Belgorod” without permission if the military command did not “dissolve the freeing” border areas of the region from pro-Ukrainian groups.

Ukraine’s military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov indirectly claimed responsibility for the drone attack on the Moscow suburb of Ryubivka – where President Vladimir Putin lives – on May 30.

Imagining civil unrest in Russia itself, he said, “We have to bomb and destroy the “civilian” homes with artillery. … It’s all happening live, live. The whole world is watching.”

There are other smaller acts of vandalism.

Ukraine may have shelled the Russian-held port of Berdyansk in Zaporizhzhia, according to the region’s occupation governor. Vladimir Rogov posted a video on Telegram on Friday showing a column of gray smoke rising from one of the port structures.

That same day, a car bomb killed a Russian supporter in the town of Mykhailivka in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Cafe owner Sergey Didovoduk has registered as a candidate for the upcoming mayoral elections sponsored by the Russian occupation. Ivan Fedorov, the town’s exiled Ukrainian mayor, said he was “a supporter of the Kremlin”.

Terror from the air and at sea

Russia responds to Ukraine counterattacks with increased airstrikes against civilians.

The posted photos show that the headquarters of Ukrainian military intelligence was hit by several Iranian-made missiles. Shahed-136 . drone for a few days at the end of May.

The Ukrainian General Staff said it destroyed all 10 Iskander ballistic missiles launched by Russian forces on June 1. Three days later, the general staff said its forces had shot down four of them. 6 Kh-101 and Kh-555 cruise missiles and 6 out of 8 Shahed missiles. kamikaze drones.

On Tuesday, the Ukrainian air force said it had shot down all 35 air-launched cruise missiles at midnight. The Kh-101 and Kh-555 missiles were both aimed at the capital Kiev.

Ukraine’s military intelligence says Russia is using up its most sophisticated missiles faster than it can replace them, but that appears to be changing. Maliar said Russia is transforming its economy into a war platform and adding important weapons.

“They are now setting up production and in fact replenishing their missile arsenal. With that dynamic, they can’t add as much as they’ve spent, but they replenish them,” Maliar said.

The numbers appear to bring her out. The Ukrainian military said it destroyed 85 missiles and 169 drones in Kyiv in May – a record number.

But the biggest breakdown of the war in recent weeks happened on Tuesday when Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric dam along the Dnipro River, which Russian forces had occupied for a year, boomed.

Ukraine says the occupying army targeted the dam by placing explosives in its turbine room. “They blew up the internal structures of the Kakhov power plant,” the Ukrainian General Staff said.

About 60,000 people live in flood areas and 3,000 people have has been evacuated.

Maliar said Russia’s intention was to “prevent the process of releasing the occupation of the Ukrainian defense forces and divert public attention from ongoing events. in the region of Belgorod“.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Ukrainian fighters of sabotaging the dam because “Ukrainian armed forces failed to achieve their goals” during large-scale offensive operations.

F-16 is coming

Zelenskyy said he received the promise of F-16 jets from EU members during a meeting on the sidelines of the European Political Community summit.

“I got some insight from some of our European partners about the number — it worked. I am very satisfied with the information I have received from several states,” Zelenskyy said.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said a coalition consisting of the Netherlands, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Belgium would begin training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s “as soon as possible”.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said his country would decide whether to send Ukraine. F-16 . fighter within two weeks. “We are in a period of reviewing and examining what can, what we want and can do,” Deutsche Welle quoted Pistorius as saying.

The Australian Financial Review reports that Australia is in talks with the US to send 41 Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18 Hornets to Ukraine after receiving US approval.

According to Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, an announcement could be made as early as July when Australia announces another package of military aid to Ukraine.

Ukraine says at least six months of pilot training is needed, so the F-16s will play no role in the current counter-offensive, suggesting more intense fighting ahead.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan speak CNN’s Fareed Zakaria: “We believe this counterattack will allow Ukraine to regain strategically important territory,” but he doesn’t think it will be the final blow to Russia.

“We have a few more years,” Krummrich agreed.

“All Ukraine has to do is keep applying pressure,” he said. “Do not try take Crimea tomorrow. This Russian offensive will collapse under its own weight. It is not sustainable.”