Ukraine’s much-heralded counter-offensive to expel Russian troops from its territory could already be underway, according to Ukrainian military and officials quoted by US media. However, Kyiv insists on maintaining mystery as it tries to resume the initiative after the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, causing severe flooding. Russia, which on Monday already saw signs that Kyiv was stepping on the accelerator, said yesterday that it had thwarted significant advances by Ukrainian troops in Zaporizhia.
Ukrainian forces intensified attacks against advanced positions in the southeast of the country, sources told The Washington Post newspaper, on condition of anonymity. Those of the ABC News chain, which includes one close to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, assured that the active phase of the counter-offensive has been entered. NBC News sources, a senior officer and a soldier from the front line expressed the same idea.
Moscow and influential Russian military bloggers have been sounding the alarm for days. On Monday, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced that it had halted an offensive near Donetsk and eliminated 250 enemy soldiers.
Yesterday, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Khoigu said that the Ukrainian army had tried in vain to break through the Russian defensive lines in four sectors of the front in Zaporizhia with a motorized brigade of 1,500 people and 150 armored vehicles. “The intelligence forces detected the enemy in time, they launched a pre-emptive attack with artillery, aviation and anti-tank means”, said Xoigú.
The Ukrainian troops were repulsed and retreated with heavy losses, says Xoigú. After two hours of fighting, Ukraine lost, according to Russian calculations, 350 men, 30 tanks and 11 infantry fighting vehicles.
If Ukrainian troops succeed in opening a breach in Zaporizhia, they could try to cut off the strip of land connecting mainland Russia with the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014. Further targets could be the city of Melitopol, which Russia has established as capital of the part of the region under its control, and Enerhodar, where the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is located.
The Ukrainian Government has insisted that there will be no public announcement about the start of the counter-offensive, even though members of the Government and even Zelenski have assured that everything is already ready. “Words are unnecessary. They can only do harm,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksi Réznikov wrote on Sunday. Security Council Secretary Oleksi Danilov said Thursday that Kyiv had not yet launched a counteroffensive. When it happens, “everyone will know”, he assured. A spokesman for the armed forces of Ukraine denied yesterday to the Reuters agency that the counter-offensive has begun.
Events on the battlefield and the possible Ukrainian counter-offensive have been the focus of attention for months. But the collapse of the Kakhovka dam this week has taken a surprising turn in the situation. Both Kyiv and Moscow have been forced to evacuate thousands of people as water washes over the war’s southern front.
Ukraine has accused Russia of blowing up the massive infrastructure to stop its counterattack plans. Russia, for its part, blames the opponent. The Russian ambassador in The Hague, Aleksandr Xulgin, assured yesterday in a speech before the International Court of Justice for a separate case, that it was Ukraine that blew up the Nová Kakhovka dam with “artillery attacks”, and calling Zelenski’s Government “neo-Nazi”.
The cross-accusations do not end there. The Prosecutor General of Ukraine stated yesterday that Russia had bombed the city of Kherson, 60 kilometers from the dam, during the evacuation of the population, killing one civilian and wounding two. “The evacuation continues. Under fire! The Russian artillery continues to fire, no matter what. Savages!†Zelenski reacted.
Russia, for its part, said Ukraine had bombed Russian rescue teams that were working in the affected area. According to Vladimir Saldo, the Russian interim governor of Kherson, two people were killed by Ukrainian attacks against an evacuation point in Hola Pristan.
Russia, whose territory under its control has been the most affected by the floods, yesterday put the number of citizens dead so far from the floods at five. “Out of seven people who were grazing, five drowned. Now we are evacuating the remaining two”, said the mayor of the city of Nová Kakhovka, Vladimir Leontiev, in the program Soloviov Live. Ukrainian authorities counted three deaths in the area under Russian control.
Since the beginning of the emergency, 4,500 people have been evacuated in Kherson and 41 have had to be hospitalized, explained yesterday Alla Barkhà tnova, Minister of Labor and Social Policy in the Russian administration of this region. The water has flooded 14,000 houses in 15 towns in the Russian area.
On the other side of the front, the Ukrainian, Zelenski visited several affected areas yesterday, such as the city of Kherson and Mikolaiv, where the Ukrainian authorities registered one death.
