Zelenskyy lauds Ukraine advance amid counteroffensive speculation

World
By William

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has praised his troops after Ukrainian troops moved forward in several parts of the front line with Russia, amid speculation that the increased combat activity could be a signal that Kiev’s long-awaited counter-offensive is under way.

In his late-night video address on Monday, Zelenskyy mocked what he described as Russia’s hysterical response to any operation by the Ukrainian armed forces, calling two Ukrainian units “skillfully, resolutely and effectively defending our positions, destroying the occupiers and, most importantly, moving forward.” “.

“I am grateful to all our warriors, all our defenders who brought us the news we expect. Bakhmut direction – well done, warriors! Zelenskyy said in his speech, which did not directly address whether the long-awaited counter-offensive had begun.

“We see how hysterically Russia observes every step we take there, every position we take,” he said.

“The enemy knows that Ukraine will win. They see it. They feel it thanks to your strikes, soldiers and especially in the Donetsk region. Thanks for that.”

Ukrainian ground forces commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said earlier on Monday that his troops were “moving forward” near Bakhmut. Russian fighters and officials said the situation there was “very difficult”, despite Moscow claiming to have taken the city late last month after what had become the longest and bloodiest battle of the war. Ukraine had insisted that its troops maintain a small foothold in the eastern city.

Ukraine’s deputy defense minister Hanna Maliar also said Ukraine was “turning to offensive action” along parts of the front, but dismissed suggestions that this was part of a major operation.

Countering those claims, the Russian military said it has thwarted two large-scale Ukrainian offensives against its forces in eastern Ukraine since Sunday and inflicted heavy casualties on Ukrainian forces in what appeared to be Moscow’s attempt to portray military activity as the start of Ukraine’s counter-offensive that was early disappointing.

“The enemy launched a massive offensive in five sectors of the front towards South Donetsk,” the Russian defense ministry said in a statement.

“The enemy has not completed its tasks, it has not been successful,” he said.

Russia’s defense ministry claimed early Tuesday that eight of Ukraine’s German-made Leopard main battle tanks were among 28 tanks destroyed in the fighting, along with 109 armored vehicles, and that hundreds of Ukrainian troops were killed.

But some pro-Kremlin military bloggers painted a different picture of the fighting, acknowledging that Kyiv’s troops had made quick gains. The boss of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, also said on Monday that Ukrainian forces had made gains near Bakhmut.

Russian troops, he said, were “slowly” leaving the village of Berkhivka near Bakhmut, which he said was a “disgrace”.

The Wagner boss again challenged Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the Russian General Staff, and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to come to the front line and force the Russian troops to stand and fight.

Kiev is officially silent on the start of a counter-offensive, despite speculation by analysts that an offensive campaign against Russian troops has begun.

A video released over the weekend by Ukraine shows several of its soldiers in full combat gear raising a finger to their lips.

“Plans love silence. There will be no start announcement,” say the words that flash on the screen afterwards, followed by fighter jets in the sky.

Kiev is looking for Russia’s weak spots

Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from Kyiv, said there was “growing evidence of an intensification of fighting in several locations along the frontline”.

“Whether this is the beginning of the long-awaited Ukrainian counter-offensive and the efforts of the Ukrainian forces to find weak spots in the Russian defenses, or whether these are indeed small exploratory attacks ahead of a larger large-scale operation, that will become clear in the coming days,” he said.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, said Tuesday it, too, had observed increased fighting in various sectors of the frontline amid signals from Russian and Ukrainian officials that the counteroffensive has begun.

“Ukrainian troops are making territorial gains despite Russian claims to the contrary,” the ISW said, noting that Moscow had a history of claiming defeats on the Ukrainian battlefield that later turned out to be successes for Kiev.

“Russian officials have historically claimed immediately that Ukrainian counter-offensives failed, even if the counter-offensives ultimately succeed,” the ISW said.

“A successful counter-offensive operation can take days, weeks or even months for the outcome to be fully apparent, during which time Russian sources falsely claim to have defeated it,” the institute said.

Military analysts say Ukraine has tried to hide its strategic intentions by launching multiple attacks on various sectors of the frontline in recent weeks to force Russia to disperse its resources and divert them from where the main attack was to be launched.

“Kiev is looking for Russia’s weak spots and trying to expand the front as wide as possible,” said Ukrainian military analyst Roman Svitan.

For months, tens of thousands of Russian troops have dug in along a front line stretching for about 1,000 km (600 mi), bracing for a Ukrainian attack expected to attempt to cut Russia’s so-called land bridge to the Crimean peninsula. Many military experts expect Ukraine to try to ram through Russian defenses to the coast of the Sea of ​​Azov to break the land corridor to Russian-occupied Crimea.

The Washington Post reported that some officials in Washington believed the counteroffensive was underway, but US White House national security spokesman John Kirby declined to say whether he thought it was.

“I’m not going to speak for the Ukrainian army. That’s for them to talk to,” he told a regular briefing, though he emphasized the work the United States had done to make sure the Ukrainians were ready.

“So whether it starts, or starts soon, or when they decide to step forward and whatever they decide to do, the president is very confident that we’ve done everything we can over the past six, eight months or more to making sure they have all the equipment, the training, the capabilities to be successful.”

Sir Richard Barrons, former commander of Britain’s Joint Forces Command, said a counter-offensive would not take place within a specified time.

“We need to understand that what we call Ukraine’s counter-offensive is not the same as a football game,” he said

“It’s not going to be done in 90 minutes and dusted off with a rest on an agreed day. The preparations took at least nine months, in the sense that they had to collect weapons and ammunition from NATO. Not enough so far, I think,” he said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told Reuters on Monday that Ukraine now has enough weapons for a counter-offensive, but declined to comment on whether it had begun.

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