Ukraine says it has liberated several villages as counteroffensive against Russia gathers pace

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Ukrainian troops appeared to have liberated several small villages in the southeast of the country Monday, as a large-scale counteroffensive aimed at driving Russian forces out of the country gathered pace.

The direction of the push, which has been incremental so far, suggests the main target may be the so-called “land bridge” of occupied territory connecting Russia to the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow has held illegally since 2014. The establishment of the overland connection to Crimea via parts of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions of Ukraine is the most significant strategic gain Russia has made over the course of this 15-month-old war.

Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Malyar, posted a photo to her Telegram account Monday of troops posing with the country’s yellow-and-blue flag in the town of Storozheve, in the Donetsk region, south of the front-line city of Velyka Novosilka, and on a back road to Mariupol, a shattered port on the Sea of Azov that Russia has occupied since May, 2022. Ms. Malyar said the troops were from Ukraine’s 35th Marine Brigade.

Video geolocated to Storozheve, which had only a few hundred residents before the war, showed a group of Ukrainian soldiers walking down a dirt road, past small stone and wooden houses that appeared to have been damaged by gunfire.

Ukraine claimed Sunday to have liberated the nearby villages of Neskuchny, Blahodatne and Makarivka.

Later Monday, Kyiv claimed to have liberated the town of Novodarivka, about 12 kilometres west of Makarivka, as well as the nearby communities of Lobkove and Levadne, close to the boundary between the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.

In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the country’s military was making progress. “The battles are fierce, but we are moving forward, and this is very important. The enemy’s losses are exactly what we need. Although the weather is unfavourable these days – the rains make our task more difficult – the strength of our warriors still yields results.”

Russia, however, declared Monday that it had repelled the Ukrainian assault in those regions. Independent confirmation of the situation on the front line is almost impossible, with Kyiv imposing increasingly tight media controls and Moscow barring most foreign media outright.

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The apparent Ukrainian gains amount to a push five kilometres deep into Russian-held territory. The distance from Velyka Novosilka to the Sea of Azov coast is roughly 120 kilometres, and Ukrainian troops will have to push through several long-established Russian defence lines to get there.

The counteroffensive is backed by billions of dollars worth of Western military equipment, including more than 100 main battle tanks. Video posted by Russian military bloggers appears to show destroyed Leopard 2 tanks, which have been supplied by Canada, Germany and other countries, as well as wrecked Bradley Fighting Vehicles, which were donated by the United States. That blunted Ukrainian thrust appears to have occurred in the Zaporizhzhia region.

The Ukrainian military reported two dozen major battles over the previous 24 hours along an arcing front line more than 1,000 kilometres long. Four civilians were reportedly killed and 16 others injured by Russian shelling over that period.

Oleksandr Musiienko, a Kyiv-based military analyst, said Ukraine was pushing forward on four areas of the front line – including toward Svatove, in the Luhansk region, and around the battered city of Bakhmut, in Donetsk, as well as the Velyka Novosilka and Zaporizhzhia offensives. He said it was too early to say which of the four would emerge as the main thrust of the campaign.

“We have some success already. Ukrainians are moving forward in the direction of Mariupol, and we are also moving forward in the direction of Bakhmut,” Mr. Musiienko said. “I’m not sure it will move very quickly, but we are moving forwards, some villages are liberated, and the Russians are moving back.”

He said the only clear target so far was Ukraine’s intent “to break the land bridge to Crimea … but I’m not ready to say that Mariupol is the main goal, though it could be.”

Ukraine is still coming to grips with the damage done by last week’s destruction of the Nova Kakhkovka dam, which drove thousands of people from their homes and destroyed vast swaths of rich farmland and a major hydroelectric station. Kyiv has accused the Russian military of intentionally destroying the dam in order to widen the Dnipro River and prevent a Ukrainian attack along that part of the front line.

At least 10 people died in the flooding, and 42 others are missing.

Monday was a holiday in Russia, marking the 32nd anniversary of the country’s declaration of sovereignty from the Soviet Union. At a ceremony in the Kremlin, President Vladimir Putin said it was a “difficult time” for the country and called on Russians to “unite our society even more strongly” and “support our heroes taking part in the special military operation.”

Mr. Putin, who ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022 – including a failed attempt to seize Kyiv – has yet to formally declare war.