Main focus on Bachmut
Kiev confirms “offensive actions” at the front
06/05/2023, 05:39 p.m
Russia claims to have fended off a “large-scale offensive” by Ukraine, and Kiev has denied it. The center of the fighting remains the town of Bakhmut. It should only be about isolated attacks. At Bachmut, the Russian troops are “on the defensive”.
Ukraine has confirmed “offensive actions” in some sectors of the front and announced territory gains near the destroyed city of Bakhmut in the east of the country. “In some sectors we are carrying out offensive actions,” said Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malijar in the online service Telegram; at the same time, she made it clear that these were not large-scale attacks.
The area around Bakhmut remains “the center of the fighting,” Malijar said. “We’re advancing on a fairly broad front there. We’re having successes (…). The enemy is on the defensive,” she added.
Ukrainian attacks in several southern regions were previously reported. According to its own statements, Russia pushed back the “large-scale offensive” in the Donbass. Ukraine lost more than 900 soldiers in the attempt. The Russian Defense Ministry said the Ukrainian troops “attacked what they saw as the weakest area of the front”. “The enemy didn’t achieve their goal, they didn’t make it,” it said. The ministry published a video on the Telegram messenger service, which is said to show Ukrainian armored vehicles filmed from the air under heavy fire.
An attack was also reported from Zaporizhia, where the largest nuclear power plant in Europe is located. “This morning Ukrainian forces launched an attack on a larger scale than yesterday. The situation is alarming,” Moscow-deployed official Vladimir Rogov said, according to the Russian news agency TASS.
However, according to pro-Kremlin war reporter Alexander Kots, the latest military developments are not a large-scale attack. The Ukrainians “have not yet deployed their main forces. And if they do, it could be in a completely different area of the front,” Kots said. The war correspondent also confirmed that fighting had taken place around Wuhledar in the south of the Donetsk region and further north around Soledar and Bakhmut.
It is therefore more likely that Ukraine is currently testing the front line for weak points with test attacks. The attacks are carried out by significantly fewer units, consisting of two to three battalions.