Ukraine announces new conquests of positions held by the Russians

While President Vladimir Putin assured in St. Petersburg on Friday that the counter-offensive by the Kiev troops was a failure, the facts, acknowledged even by local pro-Russian leaders, show a somewhat different reality. Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Defense, Anna Maliar, confirmed the seizure on Monday place from Piatiatkiwhich is located about 50 kilometers south of the city of Zaporizhia, and claims that they were In addition, seven more were released in the same area.

“In two weeks of offensive operations towards Berdjansk and Melitopol, eight towns were liberated: Novodarovka, Levádnoye, Storózhevo, Makárovka, Blagodátnoye, Lobkovoe, Neskúchnoye and Piatijatki,” he explained. On Sunday, Russian sources acknowledged the loss of the town of Pyatikhatki, which was specifically acknowledged by Vladimir Rogov, the Moscow-appointed head of the Russian-occupied part of Zaporozhye, although the Russian Defense Ministry said the attack on the village was “repelled.”

In any case, according to Maliar, “the Ukrainian army has advanced to a depth of up to seven kilometers, and the liberated area exceeds 113 square kilometers.” According to him, “the general intensity of the fighting decreased last week”, which allowed the Kiev forces to “advance in various directions”. The deputy minister also referred to Dombás: “The enemy is making great efforts to stop our advance in Bakhmut, moving additional units there and increasing the number of bombings.” In that area, according to data from the Russian Ministry of Defense, Moscow troops “repelled a total of seven attacks” by Ukrainians.

“Active attacks by the enemy, which is increasing its forces in order to take the initiative from us, in the direction of Liman and Kupiansk”, in the regions of Donetsk and Kharkiv, Maliar warned on Telegram. “They have not given up their plans to reach the borders of Donetsk and Luhansk regions (…) this is now the main offensive line of the enemy, where he has concentrated a significant number of his units in the east, especially the air assault units,” the official said.

The Ukrainian Air Force reported on Monday that during Sunday evening “they were shot down four Kalibr missiles and the same number of Shahed drones» fired by Russian troops at the Odesa region, missiles from a submarine in the Black Sea and drones from the coast of the Sea of ​​Azov.

The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) estimates that Ukraine “has not yet committed most of its reserves to combat (…) operational pauses are common in major offensives, and today’s pause would not mean the end of the Ukrainian counteroffensive,” which began on June 6 .

mercenaries home

On the other hand, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian mercenaries of the Wagner Group, announced via his Telegram channel that on Sunday “32,000 people are serving sentences [en cárceles rusas] and who participated in the Special Military Operation [nombre con el que en el Kremlin se refieren a la invasión de Ucrania] in the area of ​​Luhansk and Donetsk they returned to their homes after the expiration of their contracts.

According to Prigozhin, of all former convicts who were released after the fighting in Ukraine, “83 committed new crimes.” However, he added, downplaying the figure, “such a number is only 0.25 percent of the total number of those who went home, which is eighty times less than the number of people who were generally released from Russian prisons in the same period.” that they did not sign contracts with Wagner”.