WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Zelenskiy warns of Russian efforts to halt Kyiv's troops, general notes advances in south

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned Ukrainians that Russia was throwing all its resources into a campaign to stop Kyiv's troops from pressing their counter offensive and a top general reported new progress on the southern front.

But Ukrainian military analysts suggested that things were not easy for Ukrainian forces in their bid to advance southward.

Ukraine has launched a counter offensive to take back swathes of land in eastern and southern Ukraine captured by Russian forces in their invasion launched in February 2022.

It has focused on capturing villages in the southeast in a drive towards the Sea of Azov and areas near the eastern city of Bakhmut, taken by Russian forces in May after months of battles.

Russian accounts said its forces had repelled Ukrainian attacks in eastern Donetsk region, including around Bakhmut.

"We must all understand very clearly, as clearly as possible, that Russian forces in our southern and eastern lands are doing everything they can in order to stop our soldiers," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address after chairing a meeting with top commanders on Friday.

"And every thousand metres we advance, every success of every combat brigade deserves our gratitude."

Reuters was unable to verify battlefield reports.

General Oleksander Tarnavskyi, commander of Ukrainian forces in the south, said after the meeting that his troops were "systematically moving the enemy out of their positions".

Enemy losses over the past 24 hours were equivalent to at least 200, he wrote on Telegram.

"In the south, the situation is very difficult in advancing towards Berdiansk," military analyst Serhiy Hrabskyi told Ukrainian NV radio, referring to a port on the Sea of Azov. Ukrainian forces hope to cut off a land bridge Russian forces have established with the annexed Crimean peninsula.

"They are moving on the village of Robotyne. The enemy is offering resistance to stop our advance southward."

Russia's Defence Ministry, in its daily report, said its forces had repelled 16 Ukrainian attacks on the eastern front, including near the long-contested town of Maryinka and in the strategic village of Klishchiivka, on Bakhmut's southern fringe.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russia warns of ‘mine threat’ in Black Sea

The Russian Defense Ministry has issued a warning after a Ukrainian mine was discovered near shipping lanes in the northwestern area of the Black Sea.

In a statement issued on Friday, Moscow urged all vessels to be aware of the potential danger posed by naval mines, citing a warning from Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

The stray mine was laid by Ukrainian forces early last year during “chaotic mining activities in the coastal area of the Black Sea,” the Defense Ministry said, adding that Kiev’s troops had “paid no attention to maritime navigation security.”

“Incompetence and a lack of responsibility on the part of the Ukrainian Navy have led to a situation, in which an unidentified number of mines are now drifting… in the Black Sea, posing a constant danger to navigation,” it said.

Kiev has yet to comment on the situation.

Stray mines have been discovered in the Black Sea on a number of occasions since the start of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev. In April 2022, the Turkish Defense Ministry said it had to dispatch elite Underwater Defense (SAS) diving teams to an area off the coast of Türkiye’s Izmir province after a floating mine was discovered.

Earlier, two other apparent stray mines were discovered and destroyed by Turkish specialists – one near the Bosphorus Strait and another near the nation’s border with Bulgaria. In March 2022, the Romanian military also discovered and destroyed a mine floating near the nation’s Black Sea shore.

Both Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of laying mines in the Black Sea since the start of the conflict. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky accused Russia of what he described as “creating the worst threat to international security since World War II” by laying mines as a “de facto weapon of indiscriminate action” back in April 2022.

Moscow denied Kiev’s accusations. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said in spring 2022 that the Ukrainian Navy had placed around 420 “obsolete” sea anchor mines outside several of its ports. Some of these mines later detached from their cables and were on the drift, it added.

Reuters/RT