Ukraine’s Counteroffensive Continues as Fierce Battles Rage with Russian Forces

Russia has stepped up its bombing campaign in recent weeks, despite President Vladimir Putin’s admission that his forces are short of missiles and drones.

In the early hours of Thursday morning, night attacks hit industrial facilities in the Dnipropetrovsk region, according to the Ukrainian military.

The regional military spokesman, Serhiy Prachuk, said that air defense systems repelled a series of drone attacks on the Odessa region on the Black Sea.

An attack on a warehouse and shopping center in the city of Odessa the day before killed three people.

Kiev’s long-awaited advance has been in the works for a long time, and Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of stepping up strikes in recent weeks to deflect attention from the offensive.

The Ukrainians say their forces have regained control of at least seven settlements, and about 90 square kilometers, since the start of their counter-offensive.

Malyar wrote on Telegram that Ukrainian forces had advanced around the city of Bakhmut, which has long been the epicenter of a bloody and grinding street-to-street battle with Russian forces.

She said that the soldiers advanced between 200 and 500 meters towards the city, and also advanced between 300 and 500 meters in the southern province of Zaporizhia.

The BBC has not been able to independently verify these claims.

But Ukraine acknowledged that the counterattack had already led to some “very fierce battles” as Ukrainian forces tried to break through well-established Russian defensive lines.

Senior Western officials cautioned against the idea that Russian forces would simply “melt” in the face of Ukrainian attacks, adding that Kiev’s gains were already “costly”.

“The Russian forces generally displayed a good defense from their well-defended and prepared positions and retreated between the tactical lines,” sources said.

“This defensive maneuver approach is challenging for the Ukrainians, and it is also costly for the attacking forces. Therefore, progress has been slow at the moment,” the sources noted, adding that it is too early to say how effective Ukraine’s counter-offensive will be.

However, the sources confirmed that heavy losses were expected, given that Russia had used the previous months to prepare defensive lines.

The sources said: “It will not be without risks. What we’re seeing is not unexpected. It’s difficult and it’s going to be hard for the Ukrainians. What we’ve seen, though, is that they kept moving forward, suffered losses, then kept moving forward. So the offensive is going.” Generally in the right direction.

Both sides reported increasing casualties among their opponents, which could not be independently verified.

Ukrainian officials said the strikes on Wednesday night in the Black Sea port city of Odessa killed three people in the east.

Thirteen people were wounded in the early morning attacks that targeted a warehouse and damaged shops.

The city in the southwest of the country is vital to Ukrainian grain exports across the Black Sea, and has come under infrequent missile fire during the war.

Military leaders said that Russia fired 10 missiles and 10 drones during the night, most of which were shot down by air defenses.

The officials added that three of the four Kh-22 missiles fired from a Russian warship in the Black Sea were shot down, but the latter managed to hit Odessa.

Oleg Kipper, head of the military administration in the region, said the three dead were workers at the warehouse, which was used as a food storage center.

“Maybe there are people under the rubble,” he added. He said on Telegram that more civilians were wounded after the blast, and that “air combat” had damaged shops, restaurants – including McDonald’s – and residential areas.

And resulted in strikes on the cities of Kramatorsk and Kostyantynivka in the east, according to what the Ukrainian authorities say, killed three more people, and destroyed dozens of residential homes.

Six people – including four forest workers – were killed after Russia bombed a pickup truck in northeastern Ukraine on Tuesday.

Ukrainian prosecutors said the attack took place near the village of Seredina Buda, close to the Russian border.

The director of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency postponed a planned trip to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.

Senior Ukrainian officials said Rafael Grossi had agreed to delay his trip until it was safer to travel.

Grossi said Tuesday he was “extremely concerned” that the station could come under fire from a Ukrainian counterattack.

Its officials also stressed that they needed to get to a site near the plant to check the water level, after the nearby reservoir providing the plant’s cooling ponds was damaged by the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam.

On the other hand, the State Duma (parliament) in Moscow approved a new bill allowing the Ministry of Defense to sign contracts with criminals convicted of fighting in Ukraine.

The new law would allow anyone investigated for a crime, having their case heard in court, or convicted but before a sentence becomes legally effective, to enroll in the army.

Those accused of sexual crimes, treason, terrorism or extremism will be excluded from the law.

The move – widely seen as Russia’s latest attempt to avoid a transition to full conscription – aims to fill the gaps left by the mounting loss of life.