In a conflict, civilian casualties are usually only counted if they are caused by the enemy. In the more than four months of fighting in Ukraine, it has most often been the Kyiv government that has denounced attacks by Russian forces against the civilian population, such as the one carried out last Saturday against a residential building in Chásiv Yar , whose last count yesterday Wednesday raised the number of deceased to 45.
Russia continues to press on Donetsk, with the aim of controlling the entire Donbass region. Ukraine expects a large-scale offensive, but in the meantime its forces have gone on the counterattack in Kherson (south) and Luhansk (east). In it they have put into play the Himars missiles, which the United States began supplying to them last month. After the counteroffensive, now it is also Russia that has denounced the death of civilians. The head of the pro-Russian administration of Kherson, Vladimir Leontiev, assured on Tuesday that the Ukrainian artillery attack on Nova Kajovka left “seven dead and around 60 wounded”.
Kherson province fell into Russian hands after launching what Moscow calls a “special military operation.” It is of great strategic importance. In addition to its agricultural industry and access to the Black Sea, it is north of the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014. Controlling this region would make it easier for Russian forces to consider moving further west, towards Mikolaiv and Odessa.
In the east of the country, Ukrainian forces launched a “large-scale airstrike” on an anti-aircraft defense unit near the city of Luhansk overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, pro-Russian militia representative Andrei Marochko said.
At the beginning of the month, Russia considered the entire province of Luhansk under control after taking over the city of Lisichansk. That allowed him to focus on his objectives in Donetsk, the other province in southeastern Ukraine that forms the Donbass region with Luhansk.
That doesn’t mean Luhansk can be forgotten. This Tuesday, July 12, Leonid Pásechnik, head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (PLR), assured that the offensive must continue to push the Ukrainian troops “to a safe distance” and that their “equipment and weapons cannot reach to our territory.”
Igor Guirkin, a former commander of the pro-Russian forces in Donetsk and today very active on social media, wrote on Telegram that Russia has suffered “huge losses in both men and equipment” in less than a week and that its defensive systems “have collapsed.” proven ineffective against Himars missiles.”
With a range of at least 70 kilometers, the Ukrainians’ new systems can get out of range of much of the Russian artillery.
In the attack on Nova Kakhovka in Kherson, the Ukrainian and Russian versions differ. The Ukrainian army claims that it hit an ammunition depot and killed 52 Russian soldiers. The pro-Russian administration claimed that the attack destroyed fertilizer warehouses and civilian facilities. His deputy chief, Yekaterina Gúvareva, stated that there were “no military objectives, stores, shops, a pharmacy, gas stations and even a church have been attacked,” and denounced what happened as an “act of terrorism.”
Both parties do agree on the important role of the new missiles. Quoted by the BBC, the Ukrainian presidential adviser Mijaílo Podoliak said that “the second army in the world” had “collided with reality”.
These attacks come after the Ukrainian authorities announced a counteroffensive and called on the civilian population to evacuate Kherson and Zaporiya. “There will be fighting, there will be artillery shelling, and therefore we urge urgent evacuation,” Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vershchuk said on national television on Sunday.
On Monday, officials in pro-Russian Donetsk said three people were killed and dozens wounded in the town of Stepano-Krinka after a Ukrainian Himars rocket attack.
Russia is aware that the new weaponry has strengthened the Ukrainian counterattack. The Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday that it had used Kalibr cruise missiles to destroy ammunition depots in Dnipro province that included Himars rockets. Last week Russia said it had destroyed two of these shuttles, but both Ukraine and the US denied this.
