Battles around Lyman
Russian advances force Ukrainians to change plans
07/25/2023, 8:26 p.m
Kiev’s troops are making slow progress in their counteroffensive. While they say they are gaining ground near Bachmut, they are losing territory north of Lyman. Now the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian land forces wants to adjust his tactics.
According to the Ukrainian armed forces, they have gained ground in eastern and southern Ukraine, but are also facing problems. “Due to the difficult and contrasting situation in the Bakhmut and Lyman sectors, we had to adjust our plans,” the commander-in-chief of the land forces, Olexander Syrskyj, told Telegram.
Earlier, spokesman for the General Staff Andriy Kovalyov had spoken of an advance towards the village of Andriivka south of the Russian-controlled town of Bakhmut. In the southern part of the Donetsk region, the Ukrainian troops advanced between 500 and 750 meters near the village of Staromajorske.
The Ukrainian plan changes are believed to relate to Russian advances from the Luhansk region towards the neighboring Kharkiv region north of the Kiev-controlled city of Lyman. According to consistent reports, Russian troops are said to have gained ground west of Karmazinivka.
Russian ammunition dump attacked
Russia’s army itself reported progress on the front line in the Donetsk region. In the past 24 hours, the Russian soldiers had advanced up to two kilometers in the direction of Lyman over a width of up to four kilometers, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said. In the course of these “successful counterattacks,” the Russian army took the village of Serhiyivka.
According to unconfirmed local reports, there were explosions in the central part of Crimea, a Black Sea peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014. It was unclear whether these were due to the use of Russian air defense or actual impacts. According to the unconfirmed reports, a military repair shop may have been hit. The day before, a Russian ammunition depot near Dschankoy had been attacked by air-to-surface missiles believed to be of the Storm Shadow type.
Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian invasion for more than 17 months. A counter-offensive that started around seven weeks ago has not brought any resounding success so far. A few weeks after the start of the counter-offensive, the Russian army made a new attempt to take complete control of northeastern Ukraine. Two weeks ago she had already announced that she had advanced a mile towards Lyman. Lyman is about 50 kilometers northeast of Kramatorsk, the largest Ukrainian-controlled city in eastern Ukraine.