The sight of several dead Russian soldiers next to their charred armored vehicles outside Storozhov on Wednesday seemed to belie the claim by Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ukraine is losing 10 times more fighters than his forces early in Kyiv’s counteroffensive.
The scene from the newly retaken village in the Donetsk province, reported by Reuters, presents only a snapshot of the first week of intensified fighting as both sides try to gain the upper hand both on the battlefield and the information front.
Ukraine says it has recaptured seven villages and about 35 square miles from occupied areas in the southeast front, but also acknowledged sustaining significant losses of personnel and equipment.
“Our troops are moving in conditions of extremely fierce battles, aviation and artillery superiority of the enemy,’’ Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar wrote in a Telegram post, adding that “during a war, neither side publishes accurate data on their losses, because this can be used by the enemy to predict the enemy’s future actions on the battlefield.”
Any progress Ukraine makes is expected to be slow and grinding, considering Russia has entrenched its defensive positions across the 600-mile front line with minefields, barricades and trenches. However, Ukraine has been fortified by advanced Western weapons and equipment, in addition to highly trained troops it has yet to unleash.
Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute who has studied satellite and photographic evidence of the battles, told Reuters much of the outcome will be decided by the warring parties’ ability to withstand losses.
“The risk for (the Ukrainians) is that before they get to that (Russian) defensive line, they take too much attrition and it’ll be too tough to breach it and exploit it,’’ he said.
Developments:
∎ NATO should not expect Turkey to approve Sweden’s membership application before the alliance’s summit July 11-12 because Sweden has not fully addressed his security concerns, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters. Officials from NATO, Sweden, Finland and Turkey met in Ankara on Wednesday to discuss what the Nordic nations have done to address issues regarding alleged terrorist organizations. No breakthroughs were announced.
∎ Wednesday’s visit to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant by Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, was postponed for security reasons. On Tuesday, Grossi said the Kakhovka Dam breach last week put the plant in “a relatively dangerous situation.”
∎ More than a million people in the Dnipropetrovsk province may be left without water service by the Kakhovka Dam’s destruction, according to Mykola Lukashuk, head of the regional council. The government has been importing water to make up for the shortage.
Russia attacking near and far from front line
Russia is fighting Ukraine on two fronts, increasing its aerial assaults on some cities removed from the battlefield while also trying to fend off a counteroffensive focused on the southeast.
Three food warehouse employees were killed Wednesday in a strike that also damaged homes, shops and cafes in downtown Odesa, the regional administration said on Facebook. Another 13 people were injured. It was the second attack on the southern port city in a week and it involved four Kalibr cruise missiles, three of which were intercepted by air defenses, the administration said.
The Ukrainian military also reported missile and drone strikes in three other provinces – Kharkiv in the north, Kirovohrad in the central part of the country and Donetsk in the east, the only one with concentrated fighting.
Ten towns and villages along the front line in Donetsk were struck as Ukrainian troops slowly advance, according to the presidential office, which said a missile hit the city of Kramatorsk, killing two civilians and wounding two others while damaging 29 homes.
“Intense fighting is now ongoing in nearly all sectors of the front,” a Western official told the Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence. “This is much more than probing. These are full-scale movements of armor and heavy equipment into the Russian security zone.”
Mariupol defenders go on trial
More than 20 soldiers who were taken prisoner after months of defending the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol went on trial Wednesday in Russia, facing terrorism and insurgency charges.
The 22 soldiers, including eight women, were members of the Azov battalion, an elite Ukrainian armed forces unit that fought Russian troops for three months in besieged Mariupol, which was left mostly in ruins.
Russian authorities have designated the Azov battalion as a terrorist group. The defendants, captured in May 2022, face sentences ranging from 15 years to life in prison if convicted.
Contributing: The Associated Press
