heavy fighting in the south of the country, the Russians announce the start of the counter-offensive

2023-06-09 09:01:00

Is this the start of the Ukrainian counter-offensive mentioned for months? Of the ” active fights have been raging since dawn on Friday in the Zaporizhia region of southern Ukraine. ” Currently, active fighting has resumed in the region between Orekhovo (the Russian name for Orikhiv, editor’s note.) and Tokmak “, which marks the current front line between Russian and Ukrainian forces, declared on Telegram Vladimir Rogov, one of the leaders of the Russian occupation.

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Alexander Sladkov, correspondent for Russian public television, says on his Telegram channel, followed by more than a million people, that ” the artillery » Russian and Ukrainian are active while the troops of kyiv are on the offensive. ” Long and hard fights are going on “, he posted assuring that “ the front line is stable ».

Moscow sees the start of a counter-offensive

« The enemy produces incredible efforts, attacks. In vain. Ours hold. The front line is preserved “, he declared, without his statements being able to be verified for the moment. On Thursday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had already announced that his men had repelled a Ukrainian offensive in the Zaporizhia region without further details. Similarly, the leader of the paramilitary forces Yevgeny Prigojine sees in these movements ” the start of a counter-offensive promised for months by the Ukrainian army.

For its part, kyiv remains silent in its daily bulletin published Friday morning, where there is no report of these fights. ” The opponent stays on the defensive », Laconically evokes the press release from the Ukrainian command. The Ukrainian army admits, however, having destroyed four X-101/X-55 missiles and ten drones during the night out of more than 20 missiles fired by Russia, which according to it aimed ” military installations and critical infrastructure ».

kyiv maintains vagueness over its intentions

According to experts, the Ukrainian army is aiming for a breakthrough in the Zaporizhia region towards Tokmak, 40 km south of Orikhiv, an important logistics node for the Russian forces and the last important locality with the cities of Melitopol and Berdyansk, on the sea Black.

The Ukrainian general staff is trying to keep its counter-offensive strategy vague. In recent weeks, Ukraine has tested Russian positions all along the front line, from south to east, to maintain uncertainty regarding the location of the decisive assault to retake territories occupied by the Russia, including Crimea annexed in 2014. Moscow swears for its part to want to take the whole of Donbass in the east of the country.

Slight decline in Kherson

Tuesday’s destruction of the Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper River changes the military landscape for the counter-offensive since the neighboring region of Zaporijjia, that of Kherson in the south of the country, is partly flooded. The sabotage of the imposing infrastructure located 70 kilometers upstream caused thousands of civilians to flee the flooded areas.

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Russian artillery fire also left one dead and 18 injured on Thursday in the midst of a rescue operation in Kherson, in flooded southern Ukraine. Ukrainians have accused the Russian army of hitting Kherson in recent days as thousands of civilians are evacuated from flooded areas following the destruction of the Kakhovka dam located upstream on the Dnieper River.

(With AFP)