“This week we have good news from Kharkiv regionPresident of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday. In the north of the country, the army would have recaptured about twenty villages. “Every citizen feels proud of our soldiers“, he added: In the south of the country, north of Kherson, the Ukrainian army is advancing more slowly.
But on these two fronts, it would restore 700 km2 of territory. The exact reality on the ground is difficult to assess due to the lack of independent sources. But Ukraine’s allies approved of these advances. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Thursday in Ramstein rejoiced “sheer successUkrainian troops.
These could have taken their opponents by surprise, the Institute for the Study of War said in its latest daily analysis. To the south, an attack on Kherson forced Russia to redeploy assets. The Ukrainians took this opportunity to maneuver and strike Russian rear lines of communication, targeting Kupyansk and Izyum, two important rail logistics hubs. According to the videos available on social networks, the Ukrainians, for example, captured the village of Balaklya, the lock on the road leading to Izyum. By isolating the Russian forces from the rear and suffocating them, the Ukrainian units will be able to gain a tactical advantage.
Elsewhere, Russia is resisting. In the center of the country, fighting continued in the Donetsk region, where Vladimir Putin’s army is concentrating its forces. The army of Belarus has announced the conduct of military exercises near the border with Ukraine.
Territorial conquests
The long-announced Ukrainian counter-offensive is undeniably showing initial results. The deep artillery fire carried out for several weeks has undoubtedly paid off. “Russian forces are tiring both physically and morally“A few days ago, a military expert said:
“Ukrainians are determined and they have numbers. They need weapons“Renaissance MP Benjamin Haddad, an international relations expert, explained after returning from a visit to Kyiv. With weapons provided by the West, these assets make it possible to think about bending Russia.
However, the territorial gains of the last few days do not bode well for the coming weeks. The Ukrainian army is preparing for a long war. “Undoubtedly, the only way to radically change the strategic situation is for the Ukrainian army to launch several consecutive and ideally simultaneous counter-offensives during 2023.Chief of Staff of the Ukrainian Army, General Valery Zaluzhny writes in a long analysis published on Wednesday. He also there, for the first time, insists on launching missiles at Russian bases in Crimea. “The task of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for 2023 is to make these experiences clearer and more tangible for the Russians and other occupied regions.“, he writes. In this article, he also considers the hypothesis of nuclear war.limitedwith Russia as a dire warning.
Source: Le Figaro
