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Through a message on her Telegram channel, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Milar stated that Ukrainian military forces would have recaptured the town of Storozhova, in the eastern Donetsk region. This joins Blahodatne, Makarivka and Neskuchne as the four territories that Ukraine claims to have recaptured from Russian troop control as part of its counteroffensive, although Russia denies the Ukrainian advances.
The Ukrainian army claims to have participated in more than a dozen armed clashes with Russian troops in the last 24 hours, mainly in the eastern part of the territory, near the ruined city of Bakhmut, which has been under Russian control for about three weeks.
The Ukrainian counteroffensive, repeatedly announced by President Volodymyr Zelensky, seems to have started. Despite the fact that the territories that Ukrainian forces claim to have recaptured are small towns with just over 1,000 inhabitants each before the war, they would be the first incursion by Kiev troops into the Russian defense line, an event that could be a premonitory of a larger attack
Despite kyiv’s recent announcements about the alleged counteroffensive, some experts mention that these would only be the first phases of the operation.
“The offensive has clearly started, but I don’t think the main attack (…) When we see large armored formations joining the assault, then I think we will know that the main attack has really started,” Ben Hodges, a former US commander, wrote in an article. for the Center for European Policy Analysis.
The Kremlin version
On Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that Russian troops in Ukraine had repelled “offensive attempts” by their Ukrainian counterpart in the Donetsk and Zaporizhia regions.
Similarly, the Kremlin mentioned that they have used long-distance missiles to counter attacks by Ukrainian forces on positions controlled by the Russian Army. The attacks reportedly left one civilian dead and another wounded in the town of Orikhiv, according to Yuri Malashko, regional governor of Zaporizhia.
Russian troops have increased their fortifications in territories they control in Ukraine and the Kremlin aims to tighten government control over paramilitary groups that are fighting side by side with Russian soldiers.
To achieve this, the government headed by Vladimir Putin passed a law obliging all “volunteer units” participating in the so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine to sign a contract to be under the tutelage of the Russian Defense Minister, Sergey Shoigu.
A paramilitary force from the Russian region of Chechnya, the Akhmat group, has signed this contract to continue its offensive work in Ukrainian territory, specifically in the Donetsk region, in the east of the country.
Last Sunday, the leader of the Russian Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, announced that his units “would not sign any contract with Shoigu”, since the paramilitary chief, critical of the management of the Russian commands, considered that. the Russian defense minister “cannot adequately control military formations.”
Unity in “difficult times”: Vladimir Putin on ‘Russia Day’
Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared before the public on Monday to lead celebrations for ‘Russia Day’, a holiday commemorating the country’s declaration of sovereignty with the former Soviet Union in 1990.
The president emphasized the “feelings of unity and devotion to his homeland” that the holiday provokes in the Russian people, in addition to stressing the importance of these feelings today.
“Such strong feelings, at a difficult time for Russia, unite our society even more strongly, serve as reliable support for our heroes, the participants in the special military operation,” Putin said during his speech, using Russian terminology. Russian government to refer to the war in Ukraine.
In addition, Putin launched multiple criticisms of the Ukrainian military forces, mentioning that they attack “residential areas” full of civilians.
“I can’t understand in any way why the enemy is attacking residential areas. For what? For what? What’s the point? (They’re attacking) clearly humanitarian facilities. What’s the point of this? There’s no military point, no there are none,” denounced the Russian president.
His statements at this time could be interpreted as a show of strength and confidence in the face of the Ukrainian counter-offensive and in the face of NATO, an alliance that is perceived as the main threat to the Kremlin.
NATO launches ‘Air Defender 23’
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) began the largest air military exercise in the alliance’s history on Monday in Germany. The ‘Air Defender 23’ will last 11 days and will be carried out with 250 aircraft from 25 members of the organization, together with allied countries such as Sweden, the most recent candidate to join the military entity.
The ‘Air Defender’ is an air exercise that has existed since 2018, presumably in response to the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014. This 2023, the German Army is in charge of coordinating the exercise and according to Teutonic Lieutenant Ingo Gerhartz ” No flights will be sent to Kaliningrad”, Russian territory as an exclave that borders Poland and Lithuania.
“I would be surprised if a world leader doesn’t take note of what this shows in terms of the spirit of this alliance, the strength of this alliance, and that includes Mr. Putin,” said Amy Gutmann, US ambassador to Germany, when questioned by journalists about whether the exercise targeted Russia.
With Reuters, AP and local media
