2023-07-28 13:58:00
Ukraine claims to have consolidated its advances on the southern front and repelled attacks in the east
Ukrainian forces have consolidated gains along the southern front after successfully capturing the town of Staromaiorske in the Donetsk region and repelling Russian attacks in the east, officials said.
“[Este jueves] under heavy fire from enemy aviation and artillery, Ukrainian soldiers liberated the settlement of Staromaiorske in the Donetsk region and are consolidating the lines achieved,” spokesman of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Andrii Kovalov said during a briefing this Friday.
“At the same time, the enemy made unsuccessful attempts to recapture lost ground in the Rivnopil and Makarivka areas of the Donetsk region,” he said, but added that “the Russian occupiers continue to put up strong resistance.”
Ukrainian forces are now expected to turn their attention to the neighboring town of Urozhaine, just across the Mokri Yaly river to the east. Russian officials and well-connected pro-Moscow military bloggers fear that their positions in the village are now too difficult to maintain.
The news about the consolidation of the Ukrainian advances comes a day after two US officials told CNN that Ukraine has deployed more forces in the south-east of the country, indicating that Kyiv has detected possible weak points in the Russian defensive lines and is intensifying its counteroffensive.
advances in the east: “Ukraine methodically razed Staromaiorske for several days, driving personnel out of their shelters and turning those shelters into piles of broken bricks… Losing a populated area after a stubborn and no doubt heroic defense was a blow to our military ego”, the commander of the “Vostok” battalion operating in the area, Alexander Khodakovsky, said on Telegram.
“[Ucrania] went on the offensive, holding on to the outskirts [de Staromaiorske] and gradually pushing us back, at the same time creating a flanking threat to the positions at Urozhaynoye (Urozhaine in Russian).”
“At the capture of [Staromaiorske] gives access to Urozhaynoye (Urozhaine in Russian) from the west and north,” added a pro-Russian blogger Semyon Pegov. “The enemy’s plan in this case is obvious: the Armed Forces of Ukraine intend to pinch the Armed Forces [de la Federación Rusa]”, wrote another pro-Moscow journalist, Rybar.
Fenders “dragon teeth”: A few kilometers to the west, also along the southern front line, Ukrainian forces reached for the first time the Russian “dragon’s teeth” fortification, part of their main line of defense.
Satellite imagery had previously shown that Russia installed the “dragon’s teeth” lines — concrete pyramids and rebar designed to block the advance of armored vehicles — across the territory it controls in Ukraine. CNN geolocated the video to an area east of the small villages of Nove and Kharkove, near Robotyno, along the axis of Melitopol, in the Zaporizhia province of Ukraine.
Ukraine has not commented on any advance near Robotyno or towards Urozhaine, and the General Staff has limited itself to saying that “the Ukrainian Defense Forces continue to carry out the offensive operation in the axes of Melitopol and Berdiansk, consolidating their positions.”
Clashes near Bakhmut: In the east, Ukrainian forces continue their push around the besieged city of Bakhmut, trying to push north and south of the city. According to the General Staff, Ukrainian forces repelled a Russian counterattack in the area.
“Ukrainian defenders have successfully repelled adversary attacks in the areas west and south of Klishchiivka,” he said.
Ukraine also claims to have repelled Russian attacks near the village of Nadiya, near Lyman.
“Ukrainian troops continue to stop the Russian offensive in this area,” said Kovalov, spokesman for the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
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