Ukraine said it had regained new territories in the south and east of the country, but admitted to having had a difficult week, a month after the start of its counter-offensive. For its part, Russia shows an apparent return to normality, more than a week after the Wagner group mutiny. Moscow claims that its troops at the front were not affected by the event.
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Despite a difficult situation at the front, kyiv announced that it had regained territories in the east and south of the country.
“In the south, the Ukrainian Defense Forces continue to carry out an offensive operation in the Melitopol and Berdyansk sectors. Over the past week, from June 26 to July 2, the liberated territories have increased by more than 28 km² In total, the area liberated in the south is 158 km² (since the start of the counteroffensive),” Ganna Maliar, the Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister, announced on Monday.
In the east of the country, kyiv’s troops have managed to retake 9 square kilometers in this direction in the last week, according to Maliar.
The deputy minister also stressed that the Russian troops are resisting the offensive and that the fighting is particularly intense.
“The enemy is putting up a strong resistance and a very tough duel is being fought,” Maliar added.
Ukraine launched a counter-offensive at the beginning of June to try to recover the territories occupied by Russia since the start of the invasion. Despite the difficulty of such an operation, President Volodimir Zelensky said that his troops are advancing little by little.
“Last week was difficult at the front. But we are making progress. We are moving forward, step by step!” Zelensky said.
New Russian attacks
For its part, Russia claimed to be resisting the counteroffensive and retorted that it had managed to destroy several heavy tanks supplied to Ukraine by the West.
“Only in the directions of Donetsk-South, Zaporizhia and Donetsk, where the Ukrainian formations are carrying out unsuccessful attacks, groups of the Russian armed forces destroyed 15 aircraft, three helicopters, 920 armored vehicles, including 16 (out of 17) tanks Leopard” supplied by Portugal and Poland, said Sergei Shoigu, Russian Defense Minister.
This Monday, at least two deaths were also reported in the city of Sumy, northwest of Kharkiv, in a Russian drone attack. Another 19 people were injured, according to local authorities.
Four drones hit an official building and two residential buildings, which were destroyed and rescue teams had to fight a fire. A few hours after the attack, another anti-aircraft alert was declared in the Sumy region, warning that more aircraft might be on the way.
Russia shows an apparent return to normality
Russia congratulated itself on the loyalty of its Army in the face of the mutiny organized by the head of the Wagner group more than a week ago.
“As for the June 23-25 attempt to destabilize the situation in Russia, these plans failed mainly because the armed forces personnel showed loyalty to their oath and military duty,” Sergei Shoigu said.
These were the first public statements by the Defense Minister about the rebellion with which Yevgeny Prigozhin, the then leader of the mercenary formation, had revealed that he wanted to arrest Shoigu and the chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov.
Since then, Russia has tried to teach a return to calm in the country and insists that the rebellion did not affect its troops on the Ukrainian front.
“The military continued to bravely and selflessly solve the tasks assigned to them,” Shoigu said.
However, several senior officials have not appeared in public since the event, including Gerasimov and General Sergueï Sourovikine. Various rumors suggest that they could have been arrested or dismissed after the riot.
With EFE, Reuters and AFP
