Ukraine Reports Fierce Fighting, ‘Some Success’ in Counteroffensive

KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine on Monday reported fierce combating alongside its whole entrance line and “some success” in pushing again Moscow’s troops in a single a part of the southeast the place Ukrainian forces try to retake Russian-occupied territory.

Progress has been hampered by widespread Russian-laid minefields and powerful fortifications, Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar stated.

However the Ukrainian army had pushed ahead across the village of Staromaiorske, round 60 miles southwest of Russian-held Donetsk, and was urgent on two fronts within the south, Maliar stated.

Troops had been combating for management of the neighbouring settlement of Urozhaine, she stated. A Moscow-installed official in an occupied a part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia area stated on Sunday that Kyiv was making an attempt to pierce Russian traces by gaining a foothold in each villages.

“Hostilities are happening within the neighborhood of Urozhaine and the combat is for this specific locality,” Maliar stated in an announcement to an official army platform. “There’s some success on the southern and southeast axes within the neighborhood of Staromaiorske.”

Ukrainian forces have made incremental features since kicking off their long-awaited operation in June, however officers in Kyiv have acknowledged that progress has been slower than they’d have preferred and hampered by inflexible Russian defences.

In Monday’s assertion, Maliar described the character of that problem.

“The Armed Forces are dealing with full mining of the territory, cement fortifications of the important thing heights, (and) fixed mortar and artillery shelling,” she stated. “Moreover the Russians are densely utilizing aviation.”

Maliar added that the Ukrainian army managed to retake practically 2 sq. miles through the previous week across the ruined japanese metropolis of Bakhmut, the place Russian and Ukrainian forces fought the bloodiest battle of the practically 18-month conflict.

She additionally stated Russian troops had been persevering with their assault across the japanese cities of Kupyansk and Lyman, the place she stated they had been regrouping.

“The Russians have intensified these offensives after success of the Ukrainian military on Bakhmut axis,” Maliar stated.

Russia nonetheless controls round a fifth of Ukraine, together with the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, Luhansk area within the east and swathes of the areas of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. The occupied territory consists of most of Ukraine’s coast line and components of its industrial heartland, the Donbas.

(Reporting by Dan Peleschuk; Modifying by Angus MacSwan)

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