The Ukrainian reconquest is progressing and opening a new phase in the war

Ukraine opened a new phase in the war by recapturing five cities as part of a counter-offensive launched more than a week ago, which Russia it is resisting by all means, including, according to Kiev, blowing up another dam, this time in Donetsk, to stop the Ukrainian onslaught.

president Volodymyr Zelensky She kept her word, and Kiev no longer waited for Western weapons for the expected counterattack, although it did ask Germany for new batches of Leopard 2 tanks and Marder armored vehicles.

As both sides have recognized, the bloodiest fighting is taking place in the regions of Donetsk and Zaporizhia, something from which the flooded Kherson is also struggling, currently impassable due to flooding due to the collapse of the Kakhovka Dam.

To the two villages liberated over the weekend in Donetsk – Blahodatne and Neskuchne – two more strongholds under the control of troops in the same region – Storozhov and Makarovka – and a fifth in Zaporozhye (Novodarivka) were added on Monday. “The flag is flying again in Storozhovo. And it will be the same with all nations until we liberate all Ukrainian territory»declared the marines of the port of Odessa.

In the case of Zaporozhye, which is 80% controlled by the Russians, the goal of the operation is to reach the Azov, which Moscow has turned into an inland sea, and take back the ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk. In addition, Kiev announced the advance of its troops on the flanks of Bakhmut, the city it lost a month ago at the hands of Wagner’s mercenaries.

According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Ukraine was also able to make territorial gains near Velika Novosilka (Donetsk) and around Oriyiv, a town leading to the Russian-controlled capital of Zaporozhye, Melitopol.

Russia acknowledged on Monday that it had used attack helicopters and drones to slow Ukraine’s advance on the administrative border between Donetsk and Zaporozhye. On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin proudly assured that all Ukrainian offensive attempts had “failed”, but admitted that Kiev retained its “offensive potential”. You were right in your last assessment.

Russia’s defense ministry insisted in its daily report that its troops had repelled up to five enemy attacks in the Donetsk and Zaporozhye regions, where Kiev reportedly lost hundreds of people. According to the Defense, the most intense hostilities are taking place around the strongholds of Márinka and Avdíivka, on the outskirts of the capital of the Donetsk region.