Ukraine’s military says it has launched a major counter-offensive in the country’s south as it seeks to recapture territory previously occupied by Russian troops, even as Kremlin forces hit the crucial Donbass. Eastern Ukraine has continued to explode in its campaign to take the region.
Ukraine’s southern command said on 12 July that it had attacked an ammunition depot in the Russian-held town of Nova Kakhovka, resulting in a massive explosion on social media and the death of several Russian soldiers.
“Based on the results of our rocket and artillery units, the enemy lost 52″ [soldiers]One Msta-B howitzer, one mortar, and seven armored and other vehicles, as well as an ammunition depot in Nova Kakhovka,” Ukraine’s Southern Military Command said in a statement.
However, Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported that the target was a mineral-fertilizer storage site that exploded, and that a market, hospital and nearby homes were damaged. Some ingredients in fertilizer can be used for ammunition.
Volodymyr Leontyev, the head of the Kremlin-founded civil-military administration for the Kherson region, called it a “terrorist act” and said seven civilians were killed and 80 others were injured.
As with other events during the war, the battlefield claims of both sides could not immediately be independently verified.
Nova Kakhovka is about 55 kilometers east of the Black Sea port city of Kherson, which was taken over by Russian forces at the beginning of the war.
Also in the Kherson region, Ukrainian military intelligence said on 12 July that its troops had rescued five Ukrainians in a special operation in an area occupied by separatist forces.
During a “special operation” by Ukraine’s military intelligence forces “five citizens of Ukraine held by Russian occupiers were released”, it said.
A statement identified the rescued as a military soldier, a former police officer and three civilians. One had serious battle wounds, it added without providing further details.
The Ukrainian military previously said it had assembled a massive force in preparation for a retaliatory strike in the south as it seeks to retake major ports including Kherson – previously occupied by Russia after the February 24 offensive.
To the east, Russian forces continued to intensify their firepower as they struck sites in the Donetsk region, which along with the Luhansk region make up Ukraine’s Donbass industrial heartland. The Donbass have become the focus of Russia’s military efforts after it failed to take Kyiv in the first conflict.
Ukraine’s military said Russian forces were carrying out massive shelling in the east as a preparation to intensify ground hostilities. Ukrainian officials have called the attacks on civilian targets in the region a “war crime” and urged the West to expedite the delivery of weapons needed to counter the attack.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky on July 11 Told The Russian military carried out 34 airstrikes in the past two days and the death toll in the attack on a five-story apartment building in the small town of Chasiv Yar has reached 33 people, including at least one child.
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The General Staff of the Ukrainian Army said Russian forces were using the shelling as a preparation to intensify ground maneuvers in the east. Ukrainian officials have called the attacks on civilian targets in the region a “war crime” and urged the West to expedite the delivery of weapons needed to counter the attack.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War said Russia was rearranging its forces and the massive artillery strikes were aimed at setting the conditions for future ground progress.
Moscow denies that it has targeted civilian sites, even despite video evidence and the almost complete destruction of several Ukrainian cities and towns.
Ukraine’s effort has recently been boosted with the delivery of High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and similar systems provided by Security Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov, the United States and allies. Told earlier this week.
The United States announced on 8 July that it would send four more. It said this would take the number of HIMARS sent by Washington to 12.
It was not immediately clear whether the Ukrainian military had used the HIMARS system to hit Russian sites at Novaya Kakhovka.
Meanwhile, the White House said on July 11 that it believes Iran plans to provide Russia with “hundreds” of unmanned aerial vehicles, including weapons-capable drones, for use in its war in Ukraine.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on July 11 that Washington has information that suggests Iran is preparing to train the Russian military to use drones.
Sullivan said it was a sign that Russia’s heavy bombing of Ukraine – which has allowed Moscow to consolidate gains in eastern Ukraine after the tremors around Kyiv – “come at the cost of maintaining its own weapons”. has been.”