“Progress All Over the South”
Kiev: Battles shift towards Mariupol
06/17/2023, 08:00 a.m
Fierce battles have been raging in Ukraine for months over Bakhmut in the east of the country. According to information from Kiev, however, the fighting is now concentrated in the southern regions. The iconic city of Mariupol could come into focus.
In Ukraine, the center of fighting has shifted from the east to the south of the country. The most active fighting is no longer taking place in the Donetsk region around Bakhmut, but on the roads towards Berdyansk and Mariupol, as the British “Guardian” reports, citing Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar. According to Maliar, British Challenger tanks should be ready in the direction of the coastal cities to intervene in the battles.
“The focus of the fighting was initially in the east. Now we are moving south,” Maliar is quoted as saying by the newspaper. “The enemy has gathered all his strength in the east to stop our offensive. In the south he is not very successful: we are making progress everywhere.”
The deputy defense minister does not want to comment specifically on the number of dead soldiers. “It’s war, of course we have casualties, but not big ones,” Maliar said. “In the Bakhmut area, nine times as many Russian soldiers die as Ukrainian soldiers. In the south, five times as many Russians die as Ukrainians.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his next video address that every meter that Ukrainian forces recaptured is of the utmost importance: “The most important thing is our advance.”
Symbol of resistance
By the time the Russian attack began, Mariupol had become a symbol of the Ukrainian resistance. Only after several months of siege and almost complete destruction could Russian troops take the port city on the Sea of Azov. 14 men and 8 women who took part in the defense of Mariupol to the end have been on trial in Russia since Thursday. According to media reports, the accused Ukrainians face life imprisonment.
The Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podoliak spoke to pictures of the accused Ukrainians from the courtroom of a “disgusting show trial”: “The boys and girls look like skeletons after concentration camps and torture”. This abuse is a war crime.