• Conflict Ukraine launches offensive in southern Ukraine
  • Direct Ukraine-Russia War: Last Minute

Within the strategy of confusion sponsored by Kiev for weeks, the Ukrainian authorities tried on Wednesday to mitigate the scope of the offensive launched by their troops in several sectors of the Donetsk front, while it was Russia that announced the start of the expected Ukrainian counteroffensive in the southeast of the country. Moscow said it faces a "large-scale" operation involving at least 8 battalions and where the famous Leopard tanks, of German origin, are already being used.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar limited herself to linking the onslaught, which has spread to several sectors of the front, as part "of the continued defense that we started on February 24, 2022 (when Moscow launched the invasion of Ukraine) that includes counteroffensive actions."

"That's why we've gone on the offensive in some areas," he added.

Maliar indicated that the main objective of the Ukrainian uniformed is the city of Bakhmut, in Donetsk, which was captured a few weeks ago by Wagner's paramilitaries in a victory that experts already defined as pyrrhic and ephemeral before the pressure that the Kiev military were exerting on the flanks of the city.

Wagner's own boss, Yevgeny Prighozin, acknowledged on social networks that a part of the military who had replaced his acolytes in Bakhmut had left an area north of that village that has passed into Ukrainian hands and strongly called for reinforcements to be sent to the area. "The troops are fleeing. It's a disgrace," he said in his speech.

Prighozin took the opportunity to lash out for the umpteenth time against political rivals such as Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, whom he demanded to go "to the front" even with an army "armed with guns" to try to stop the Ukrainians and otherwise "die like a hero."

In addition to Bakhmut, several Russian media and the Institute for the Study of War indicated that local forces have managed to break the Russian front line around Velyka Novosilka, not far from the troubled village of Vuhledar, on the southern tip of Donetsk that connects with the province of Zaporizhia, a region that was anticipated as a key theater of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Russian journalists, including those close to the Kremlin, admitted that Ukrainian units supported by the aforementioned Leopard have managed to approach the small village of Novodonetskoye.

One of the Russian news channels, Wargonzo, said the scuffle in Velyka Novosilka began at 4 a.m. and dozens of armored vehicles participated in the onslaught. "There is a very tough fight going on," wrote the Telegram channel, which on Sunday had already reported on a Ukrainian attempt in the same sector although on a much smaller scale. "The situation is critical," he added.

The route from Velyka Novosilka to the south of the Ukrainian coast connects directly with cities occupied by Russian forces such as Mariupol and Berdyansk. Any Ukrainian advance in that area would be a major loss for Moscow that could see its entire military strategy in eastern Ukraine threatened and see its supply lines between Russia and the Crimean peninsula, which it controls since 2014, jeopardized.

A well-known pro-Russian officer, Alexander Khodakovsky, a former member of the Ukrainian secret services who moved to Moscow in 2014 and now commands the so-called Vostok Battalion, explained that the situation in that sector "is difficult."

"The enemy has understood where our weak points are and is intensifying his efforts. For the first time we have seen the Leopard. Smelling success, the enemy will throw additional forces into battle. Here alone we have counted up to 30 armored vehicles," he said.

Early in the morning, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, had announced the hypothetical failure of all Ukrainian efforts in five different sectors of the southern front.

"The enemy's objective was to break through our defenses in what they thought was the most vulnerable sector of the front. He was unsuccessful. The losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces amounted to more than 250 troops (soldiers), 16 tanks" and two dozen more armored vehicles, representatives of Vladimir Putin's regime said.

Moscow released a video purportedly showing several Ukrainian armored vehicles being hit by artillery fire.

The clashes in southeastern Ukraine added to the intensification of the fray in Russia's Belgorod province, where groups opposed to President Putin again attacked the border line, in an unexpected twist from the invasion sponsored by Moscow in February last year, which has now moved to its own geography.

The Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) and the Free Russian Legion have been joined by the so-called Polish Volunteer Corps, a unit of volunteers from that country, which on Sunday admitted its participation in that operation.

Belgorod officials said one of the plants generating electricity in the area was attacked overnight and is being consumed by a violent fire.

Diverting attention

For Igor Girking, one of the Russian militants who led the 2014 Moscow-sponsored uprising in Donbas, this operation was the debut of the Ukrainian plan and is meant to divert Moscow's attention.

The Russian rebel formations showed a video on Sunday showing a dozen alleged soldiers loyal to Moscow that they said they had captured and offered to hand them over to the authorities of that country, although in the end this offer was not accepted by the representatives of the local authorities.

"We just want to talk to you (reference to the Belgorod governor) about the future of Russia and the unnecessary civil war now being fought in Belgorod," Denis Kapustin, the head of the KDR's ranks, had proclaimed.

One of President Volodymyr Zelensky's advisers, Mikhailo Podolyak, said in a tweet that the chaotic images coming from Shebekino - the main city in Belgorod that the rebels are trying to capture - should be seen as a foretaste of what "the future of Russia" will look like. "It is the end of Putin's era of stability," the Ukrainian representative added.

The assault of the uniformed opposition and the Ukrainian army – whose artillery and air support is proving vital – began on May 22 and has intensified in recent days.

The governor of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, has admitted that more than 4,000 people have already fled Shebekino but several Russian media say that the stampede has been almost widespread and describe the village that used to host up to 40,000 residents as a "ghost town". On Saturday, Gladkov himself said shelling in the area had killed five civilians and wounded 16 others.

"The Kremlin can do nothing to prevent Belgorod from becoming the same constant battlefield that has been Donbas" for the past few years, Igor Girking said on his Telegram channel.

"The enemy has enough units to support the newly formed front line without much effort, without touching the shock reserves arranged to launch towards the Sea of Azov. The population is shocked and complaining," Girking wrote.

The war was accompanied by sabotage actions in various Russian cities and the hacking of that country's television in several regions, which suddenly began to show a video of a fake Putin in which he declared martial law and clarified that the Ukrainian army had invaded the provinces of Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk.

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