US and Western officials note a “significant increase in fighting” in eastern Ukraine over the past 48 hours, as Ukrainian forces search for weak spots in Russia’s defensive lines.
A senior NATO official told CNN on Tuesday that US and Western officials are seeing signs of the start of the long-awaited Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russia.
The NATO official added that US and Western officials had noted a “significant increase in fighting” in eastern Ukraine over the past 48 hours, as Ukrainian forces searched for weak points in Russia’s defensive lines.
The NATO official and a senior European military intelligence official told the American News Network that the initial attacks have been underway for at least two weeks, but that the Ukrainian forces have begun in recent days to test the strength of the Russian positions with artillery strikes and ground attacks to reveal vulnerabilities that can be penetrated.
Officials said the destruction of the huge Kakhovka dam in the Russian-controlled region of Kherson, which triggered a wave of evacuations on Tuesday, could complicate some of Ukraine’s plans.
Two officials said the destruction of the dam could now make it more difficult for Ukrainian forces to cross the Dnipro River and attack Russian positions there.
On the other hand, Vladimir Leontyev, head of the Kakhovka district administration in the Russian-controlled Kherson Province, said on Monday that the Ukrainian forces had intensified their shelling of the region.
And the American (NBC) television quoted two American sources and a Western source as saying, on Tuesday, that the US government has intelligence information that suggests that Russia is responsible for the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam.
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2023-06-07 03:05:04
