More areas freed
Ukraine reports land gains in south and east
07/31/2023, 2:28 p.m
The counter-offensive of the Ukrainian armed forces is progressing step by step. In the past week, another 15 square kilometers have been liberated, explains Deputy Defense Minister Maljar. The Kremlin plays down Ukraine’s successes.
According to information from Kiev, the Ukrainian armed forces liberated almost 15 square kilometers from the Russian occupation during their counter-offensive last week. At 12.6 square kilometers, the main part was on sections on the front in southern Ukraine, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maljar told Telegram.
In the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, another two square kilometers have been added to the Russian-controlled city of Bakhmut. Since the start of the Ukrainian counter-offensive about eight weeks ago, a little more than 240 square kilometers have been recaptured. Russia continues to control more than 100,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory, including the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was illegally annexed in 2014.
The government in Kiev reported last week that the town of Staromajorske in the southeast had been liberated by Russian troops. According to reports from Russian military bloggers, the Ukrainians also managed to cross the heavily mined so-called gray zone near Orikhiv in the Zaporizhia region to the first Russian defensive position at the settlement of Robotyne.
The Kremlin, on the other hand, announced that the counteroffensive was not going as planned. NATO military aid to Ukraine was “wasted” on a counter-offensive, said Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov. He also announced additional measures to counter Ukrainian drone attacks. Moscow’s financial district was attacked with drones on Sunday.
Ukraine has been defending itself against a major Russian invasion for over 17 months with Western military aid. The long-heralded Ukrainian counter-offensive has so far fallen short of high expectations.