US officials told The New York Times on Wednesday that the main thrust of Ukraine’s counteroffensive has started while the Russian military reported a “massive” Ukrainian tank attack in the southern Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
Unnamed Pentagon officials told the Times that Ukraine has poured in thousands of troops who were being held in reserve to the frontlines. Most of them have received training in NATO countries ahead of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, which was launched in early June.
The Russian Defense Ministry said there was heavy fighting to the south of Orikhiv, a Ukrainian-controlled town in Zaporizhzhia. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Ukrainian forces “carried out a massive attack by three battalions reinforced by tanks.”
“All of the Ukrainian army’s attacks were repelled by courageous and professional actions,” Konashenkov said, according to the Russian news agency TASS. He claimed Russian forces “destroyed 22 enemy tanks, 10 infantry fighting vehicles, an armored combat vehicle and over 100 Ukrainian personnel.”
Military situation in the Zaporizhzhia region on July 26, 2023. Photo: SouthFront.org
According to the Times, Ukrainian soldiers fighting on the southern front said they’d “been steadily pushing Russian troops back, but their progress had been incremental with no major breakthroughs.”
The new push appears to be a last-ditch effort to break through after the first phase of the counteroffensive had been unsuccessful. Ukraine’s goal is to sever the land bridge Russia has secured from Crimea to the Russian mainland, and Ukrainian officials told the US that the new operation could take one to three weeks if it is successful. “This is the big test,” a US official told the Times.
Ukrainian success seems unlikely, as The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Western officials didn’t believe Ukraine had enough weapons or training to dislodge Russian forces but hoped they would be able to break through anyway. In the lead-up to the counteroffensive, the Discord leaks and media reports revealed that the US did not expect Ukraine to be able to regain much territory.
Source: AntiWar.
