Ukrainian forces launched a full-scale attack in the southern Zaporizhia region on Thursday and went on the offensive against the invading Russians in several locations in the east and south. However, there was no sign of a breakthrough in an operation with much at stake for Kiev and its western allies.
Three senior US officials, as well as military analysts, said a long-awaited major Ukrainian counter-offensive appeared to be underway after months spent mobilizing, training and arming new units with advanced Western weapons. A strong indication was the use of German troops by the Ukrainians in combat on Thursday Leopard tank and american Bradley combat vehicles.
“It appears that some of the new brigades that Ukraine deployed for this counteroffensive have been deployed, suggesting the counteroffensive is underway,” said Rob Lee, senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. “Ukrainian forces made some tactical gains and sustained casualties.”
The United States and other Ukrainian allies formed and equipped the nine brigades that would lead Ukraine’s counteroffensive to retake Russian-held territories. Ukraine is widely expected to launch a multi-pronged attack along a front stretching hundreds of kilometers and centered on part of the Zaporizhia and Donetsk regions. Ukraine’s plans are targeting specific areas to try to breach Russian lines, but they can adjust and focus on the advances that prove most successful, US officials said.
Russia and pro-war Russian bloggers claimed Moscow forces repelled Ukrainian attacks on Thursday. Kyiv made little comment on the intensified fighting, neither confirming nor denying Russia’s claims. Ukrainian officials said they would not discuss details for reasons of trade secrecy.
The Russian war bloggers, who have become a major source of information on the front lines, said Ukraine’s armed forces suffered heavy casualties, although these claims have not been verified and have often been exaggerated in the past.
Two of the senior US officials confirmed on condition of anonymity that the advancing Ukrainian troops suffered casualties in the initial fighting, but said confidential estimates to quantify the casualties were still being developed.
Ukraine doesn’t usually talk about military casualties, but battlefield conditions pose a serious challenge to an attacker. Over months, Russian forces have built up a network of defenses, and the flat terrain with poor cover along much of it the southern front makes any advancing troops or armored vehicles vulnerable to enemy artillery.
In recent days, Russian military and pro-war bloggers have been reporting that Ukrainian forces have launched attacks in the eastern Donetsk region, the fighting of which prompted American officials to say so earlier this week The counteroffensive may have begun. Evidence for that conclusion grew Thursday, but the possibility remained that Ukraine’s attacks were the prelude to an even larger push.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Thursday that its forces thwarted a Ukrainian attack in the Zaporizhia region near the village of Novodarivka.
Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said a battle was underway in the area of a larger town in the neighboring Donetsk region, Velyka Novosilka, about 10 miles away, but it was unclear whether it was referring to the same altercation. And a map published by the British Ministry of Defence identified this general area as the site of an apparent Ukrainian advance.
Sergei K. Shoigu, Russia’s defense minister, said that forces from Ukraine’s 47th Mechanized Brigade, including dozens of armored vehicles, “made an attempt to breach Russia’s defenses” in the area, but that Moscow’s air and ground forces did attack would have fended off. This brigade is one of the Ukrainian units trained and equipped with advanced equipment by the United States.
The Russian report, like most claims about what was happening at the front, could not be independently verified, but videos confirmed by the New York Times showed a Ukrainian armored vehicle hitting a land mine near Velyka Novosilka.
Heavy fighting was reported further west in the Zaporizhia region, near the town of Orichiv, where Ms Malyar said “the enemy is actively on the defensive”.
Russian bloggers reported that Ukraine had unsuccessfully attempted an advance a few miles east of Orikhiv, near the village of Mala Tokmachka, and posted videos and photos showing Leopard tanks and German- and US-made combat vehicles, claiming that some of them were destroyed. The Times has been able to confirm the locations of the images, confirming that they were taken recently and that some equipment was damaged or destroyed.
Heavy fighting continued more than 120 miles northeast around the town of Bakhmut, scene of the longest and bloodiest battle of the war. Ms Malyar told Ukrainian news channels that where the Russians captured the city but Ukrainians were advancing on their flanks, Bakhmut “remains in the epicenter where we went from defense to offense” and that “we are crushing a lot of enemy manpower.” . There.
But Russian bloggers said the defenses held up, aided by sustained attacks from the Russian Air Force.
“After a day of non-stop fighting, there is indirect information about minor breaches in the defense system, there are no breaches,” former Russian paramilitary commander Igor Girkin wrote on the news app Telegram on Thursday morning.
Western nations have supplied billions of dollars worth of weapons to give Ukraine’s armed forces the mobility and firepower needed for the offensive, including modern tanks and other armored vehicles. The Allies quickly trained nine of the twelve newly formed and equipped brigades to take part in the fighting along with other Ukrainian units.
Although the situation is solid so far, there is no guarantee that western support will remain in place for the long term. For example, the US military aid budget is expected to run out around September, and some Republicans in Congress have questioned the justification for doing so.
Should Ukraine fail to breach Russia’s mine belts, anti-tank obstacles and trenches, the desire to arm its forces could wane and pressure Kiev to start negotiations with Moscow or freeze the conflict, thereby cementing some of Russia’s territorial gains.
The destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in southern Ukraine on Tuesday, which led to widespread flooding along the Dnipro River, complicates the situation for both sides, but also for Ukrainian officials President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, have said the impact on the battlefield would be minimal. The flooding would make a military crossing of the Dnipro River separating the warring factions in the Kherson region difficult, but Ukrainians say such an attack was not in their plans.
Reporting was contributed by Christian Triebert, Christoph Koettl, Ivan Nechepurenko, Marc Santora And Anatoly Kurmanayev.
