Ukraine has stepped up its counteroffensive in the southeast

The Ukrainian military stepped up its counter-offensive over the weekend and claimed that President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged for the first time that an operation was underway to liberate parts of Russian-held territories in the country’s southeast. ,

Kiev has long been reluctant to acknowledge that a counteroffensive had begun. But on Saturday Zelensky said “retaliatory and related defensive actions are ongoing”.

“It is important that Russia feels fully. , He doesn’t have much time left,” Zelensky said during a news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The Ukrainian leader said it aimed to liberate about 18 percent of occupied territory in the southeastern regions, but would not make public any further details about the offensive.

The Ukrainian army said on Sunday it had liberated two villages – Blahodtne and Neskuchne – south of the Donetsk region, which would breach at least one layer of Russian defense south of Velika Novosilka, where counter-attacks were reported last week. Was found

Ukrainian soldiers on Sunday posted a video of yourself Raised the country’s national flag on a building in Blahodtne and held the flag of his brigade in Neskuchne.

Moscow did not immediately comment on the claims.

On Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry said Ukraine had not yet breached its defensive lines and claimed it had destroyed some of Kiev’s advanced Western-built weapons, including German-made Leopard tanks, US infantry fighting vehicles and a French howitzer.

The Defense Ministry has published several videos in recent days claiming to show successful attacks by helicopters and drones on Ukrainian armored vehicles.

Kiev has not accepted any damages.

The Russian Defense Ministry spokesman who made the claims, Igor Konashenkov, is known for making exaggerated claims—including capturing the same city multiple times—and has come under rare public criticism from Russian pro-war hardliners.

On Sunday, state television showed Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu handing the Hero of Russia Gold Star medals to two soldiers, the country’s highest military honor, who said they destroyed several of Ukraine’s tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. Had done it. The ministry did not say where the men had fought or which armored units they allegedly destroyed.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that the Ukrainian counter-offensive had been going on for five days and made a rare admission of his country’s lack of sufficient modern weapons – claiming that his military had so far been resisting the attacks.

But the defense ministry is still struggling to bring some of Russia’s own military back under its control – deepening a long-running dispute between Shoigu and the paramilitary group Wagner on Sunday.

Wagner’s founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said the group would resist any attempts to make it subordinate to the Ministry of Defense after Shoigu signed a decree arming all of Russia’s patchwork volunteer battalions and irregular forces with army contracts. .

Prigozhin said that Wagner would continue to answer to Putin alone because Shoigu “cannot run military units properly”. But the head of the paramilitary named a different general, Sergei Surovikin, with whom he could work.

The rare public outcry after the clash between Wagner and the army overshadowed one of Russia’s rare battlefield successes, which deserved most of the credit for capturing the symbolically important town of Bakhmut last month. A former commander of an army unit in that area said this week that Wagner’s fighters had tortured him, forced him to record a video confession and had stolen several armored units from the Russian army.

The intense Ukrainian attacks came after Tuesday’s Kakhovka Dam breached, causing devastating flooding in both Ukrainian and Russian areas along the Dnieper River in the southern Kherson region. The flooding has compressed the front line, preventing the Ukrainian army from conducting offensive operations there.

Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Mlyar said on Sunday that Russia is already redeploying its “most combat-capable units” from the Kherson region to other border areas.

Kiev has accused Russian sabotage groups of blowing up the dam – a claim Moscow denies.

About 3,000 people have so far been evacuated from towns under Ukrainian control, officials say, as waters began to recede on Sunday. The destruction was worse on the Russian-occupied east coast, where the evacuation began late and with insufficient resources.

Ukraine’s Interior Minister, Ihor Klymenko, said on Sunday that floods had killed at least five people in Ukrainian-controlled territory and at least 14 in Russian-occupied parts of the Kherson region. Clemenceau said another 35 people were missing, including seven children.

The governor of the Ukrainian Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said three civilians, including two law enforcement officers, were killed and 10 were wounded on Sunday when Russian forces fired on a rescue boat carrying people from the Russian-held part of Ukraine. was taken out

The Ukrainian military stepped up its counter-offensive over the weekend and claimed that President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged for the first time that an operation was underway to liberate parts of Russian-held territories in the country’s southeast. ,

Kiev has long been reluctant to acknowledge that a counteroffensive had begun. But on Saturday Zelensky said “retaliatory and related defensive actions are ongoing”.

“It is important that Russia feels fully. , He doesn’t have much time left,” Zelensky said during a news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The Ukrainian leader said it aimed to liberate about 18 percent of occupied territory in the southeastern regions, but would not make public any further details about the offensive.

The Ukrainian army said on Sunday it had liberated two villages – Blahodtne and Neskuchne – south of the Donetsk region, which would breach at least one layer of Russian defense south of Velika Novosilka, where counter-attacks were reported last week. Was found

Ukrainian soldiers on Sunday posted a video of yourself Raised the country’s national flag on a building in Blahodtne and held the flag of his brigade in Neskuchne.

Moscow did not immediately comment on the claims.

On Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry said Ukraine had not yet breached its defensive lines and claimed it had destroyed some of Kiev’s advanced Western-built weapons, including German-made Leopard tanks, US infantry fighting vehicles and a French howitzer.

The Defense Ministry has published several videos in recent days claiming to show successful attacks by helicopters and drones on Ukrainian armored vehicles.

Kiev has not accepted any damages.

The Russian Defense Ministry spokesman who made the claims, Igor Konashenkov, is known for making exaggerated claims—including capturing the same city multiple times—and has come under rare public criticism from Russian pro-war hardliners.

On Sunday, state television showed Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu handing the Hero of Russia Gold Star medals to two soldiers, the country’s highest military honor, who said they destroyed several of Ukraine’s tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. Had done it. The ministry did not say where the men had fought or which armored units they allegedly destroyed.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that the Ukrainian counter-offensive had been going on for five days and made a rare admission of his country’s lack of sufficient modern weapons – claiming that his military had so far been resisting the attacks.

But the defense ministry is still struggling to bring some of Russia’s own military back under its control – deepening a long-running dispute between Shoigu and the paramilitary group Wagner on Sunday.

Wagner’s founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said the group would resist any attempts to make it subordinate to the Ministry of Defense after Shoigu signed a decree arming all of Russia’s patchwork volunteer battalions and irregular forces with army contracts. .

Prigozhin said that Wagner would continue to answer to Putin alone because Shoigu “cannot run military units properly”. But the head of the paramilitary named a different general, Sergei Surovikin, with whom he could work.

The rare public outcry after the clash between Wagner and the army overshadowed one of Russia’s rare battlefield successes, which deserved most of the credit for capturing the symbolically important town of Bakhmut last month. A former commander of an army unit in that area said this week that Wagner’s fighters had tortured him, forced him to record a video confession and had stolen several armored units from the Russian army.

The intense Ukrainian attacks came after Tuesday’s Kakhovka Dam breached, causing devastating flooding in both Ukrainian and Russian areas along the Dnieper River in the southern Kherson region. The flooding has compressed the front line, preventing the Ukrainian army from conducting offensive operations there.

Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Mlyar said on Sunday that Russia is already redeploying its “most combat-capable units” from the Kherson region to other border areas.

Kiev has accused Russian sabotage groups of blowing up the dam – a claim Moscow denies.

About 3,000 people have so far been evacuated from towns under Ukrainian control, officials say, as waters began to recede on Sunday. The destruction was worse on the Russian-occupied east coast, where the evacuation began late and with insufficient resources.

Ukraine’s Interior Minister, Ihor Klymenko, said on Sunday that floods had killed at least five people in Ukrainian-controlled territory and at least 14 in Russian-occupied parts of the Kherson region. Clemenceau said another 35 people were missing, including seven children.

The governor of the Ukrainian Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said three civilians, including two law enforcement officers, were killed and 10 were wounded on Sunday when Russian forces fired on a rescue boat carrying people from the Russian-held part of Ukraine. was taken out