Ukrainian army talks about successes in the south – the night update without photos Escape from Nagorno-Karabakh: Switzerland’s good offices are an illusion

Successes in southern Ukraine

According to information from Kiev, Russian losses during the fighting in southern Ukraine have increased significantly. The Russian occupiers lost 338 fighters and dozens of combat technology units within 24 hours, said the commander of the southern sector of the “Taurien” front, Brigadier General Olexander Tarnavsky. Accordingly, Ukrainian forces are making progress in the Zaporizhia region. There were “partial successes” north of the villages of Kopani and Nowoprokopivka, he said.

In this region, Ukrainian troops have been fighting their way through heavily fortified Russian defense lines with minefields, anti-tank barriers and trenches for weeks. The fighting at Kopani and Novoprokopivka indicates that the Ukrainians are increasing their point of penetration into Russian defenses.

In its evening situation report, the Ukrainian General Staff reported, among other things, that a total of twelve Russian attacks had been repelled in the Donetsk region in the east of the country. In total there were 50 battles in the war zone on Saturday. Ukrainian forces have been waging a counter-offensive for months to liberate the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhia, as well as the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, each partially occupied by Russian forces.

There was also “partial success” in the village of Andriivka south of the eastern city of Bakhmut, Kiev said. While Bakhmut in the Donetsk region itself is in Russian hands, the Ukrainians have retaken a strategically important railway line south of it in recent weeks. They are now expanding their positions on the other side of the track.

The military information is often not independently verifiable. However, the Institute for War Studies ISW in the US also mentioned this Ukrainian progress in its new report. At the same time, the experts wrote that the Russian army had managed to exchange troops in the south despite Ukrainian pressure.

According to Ukrainian information, attacks by Russian ground forces were concentrated on the Kupyansk and Lyman front sectors in the east, as well as on Avdiivka and Mariinka near Donetsk. But they were repelled, it was said. The front is about 1000 kilometers long.

Zelensky condemns terror in Israel and Ukraine

Regardless of its own defense against Russia’s war of aggression, Ukraine was also hit by Israel’s worst outbreak of violence in decades. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the “terror” of the militant Hamas in the Gaza Strip against Israel and called for international solidarity with the country. That afternoon he had already emphasized Israel’s right to self-defense.

Ukraine itself knows what it means to be bombarded with thousands of rockets, to see dead people on the streets, civilian cars shot and hostages abused, Zelensky said in his evening video message broadcast in Kiev. Kiev is in contact with the embassy in Israel because Ukrainian citizens could also be affected by the violence.

“Our position is crystal clear: anyone who causes terror and death anywhere in the world must be held accountable,” Zelensky said. In Ukraine, Russian terror brought death to the towns and villages. Ukraine has been defending itself against a large-scale Russian invasion for almost twenty months.

Russia accuses Ukraine of ‘terror’ against Crimea

In Russia, the Defense Ministry also accused Ukrainian forces of “terror” against the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014. The ministry announced late Saturday evening that another Ukrainian missile had been shot down by Russian air defenses. No details were given. It was the second rocket attack in a few hours. Russian air defenses are said to have intercepted a Ukrainian missile earlier in the evening.

Ukraine has repeatedly bombed Crimea with drones and missiles and, according to Moscow, has tried several times to land troops there. The Ukrainian attacks repeatedly caused massive explosions and destruction. There were deaths and injuries. However, the violence is disproportionate to the massive deaths and nationwide destruction caused by Russian attacks in Ukraine. Ukraine has announced it will also retake Crimea as part of its counter-offensive.

Kremlin party official killed in occupied territory in Ukraine

In the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Kherson region, an official of the Kremlin’s United Russia party was killed by a car bomb in the town of Nova Kakhovka. This was announced on Saturday by Moscow-appointed regional administrative chief Vladimir Saldo on the social network Telegram. The dead man was the secretary of the local party organization. Ukrainian partisans are repeatedly active in the occupied part of the Kherson region. (sda/dpa)