Ukrainian troops regain more territory along eastern and southern fronts
Volodymyr Zelenskyy cites progress after his forces endured a difficult week trying to repel Russian fighters. Ukraine has said its troops have regained more ground along eastern and southern fronts in what the president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, described as progress in a “difficult” week for Kyiv’s counteroffensive against Russian forces.
The deputy defense minister, Hanna Maliar, also noted a surge in fighting around the shattered eastern city of Bakhmut, captured by Russian forces in May after 10 months of battles. “Last week was difficult on the frontline. But we are making progress,” Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “We are moving forward, step by step! I thank everyone who is defending Ukraine, everyone who is leading this war to Ukraine’s victory!”
In an initial report on Telegram on Monday, Maliar said the Ukrainian military took back 37.4 sq km (14.4 sq miles) of territory in heavy fighting in the past week. She said Russian forces were attacking near Lyman, in the northern Donetsk Oblast and near Avdiivka and Marinka, long-contested cities farther south – to the west of Bakhmut. In a later report, Maliar said fighting near Bakhmut had intensified and “a struggle is under way to seize the initiative. Read more…
Photo: journalofdemocracy.org
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Photo: SES
Symbolic number of the Day - 32
Ukrainian defenders destroyed 32 Russian artillery systems over the past day. Also, Ukrainian fighters killed 770 occupants, and destroyed 29 drones and 9 armored vehicles, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports.
Photo: General Staff
War in Pictures
“We must do everything possible and impossible to support the Armed Forces. Each of us, as much as we can.” With these words, Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, a famous Ukrainian musician and leader of the Ukrainian band “Okean Elzy,” began his 201st concert in the combat zone for the fighters of the 28th Brigade.
Video of the Day
Zelenskyy calls Putin’s reaction to the Wagner rebellion ‘weak.’ During an exclusive interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the short-lived Wagner Group mutiny had exposed Putin’s weakness in controlling the Russian military.
ISW report
Russian milbloggers have seized on recent Ukrainian activity on the east (left) bank of Kherson Oblast to call for an increased presence of small river vessels and equipment in the Dnipro River to prevent further Ukrainian advances. Russian milbloggers appealed on July 2 to the heads of the Dagestan and Tatarstan republics, Astrakhan Oblast, Krasnodar Krai, and Primorsky Krai to send boats confiscated from poachers to the Kherson Oblast frontline, specifying that 10 regiments and brigades of the Southern Military District’s “Dnepr” (the Russian word for Dnipro) Grouping of Forces sorely need the vessels
ISW previously reported on July 2 that milbloggers are accusing the Russian MoD of failing to provide Russian forces on the east bank with requisite boats and other equipment, and it appears that milbloggers outsourced their requests for additional logistical support to Russian regional heads.
The overall anxious milblogger response to recent Ukrainian activity across the Dnipro River suggests that many Russian milbloggers fear Ukraine’s ability to cross the river and believe that the current command of the “Dnepr” grouping has not sufficiently prepared its troops for that potentiality.
War Heroes
Lithuanian military volunteer dies after being wounded in Bakhmut. Valerijus Polkovnikovas, a volunteer fighter from Lithuania, who was wounded in the fighting near Bakhmut, died in a Kyiv hospital on 3 July. A friend of the deceased, Rokas Paulukaitis, a Lithuanian Air Force pilot, wrote about this on Facebook. “Today, I received the sad news. Valerijus Polkovnikovas passed away in a Kyiv hospital from the wounds he sustained in Bakhmut. A classmate, a friend, a person who could not stand aside when he saw injustice,” he said. Paulukaitis also called for aid to the parents of the deceased, who were found to be in a difficult financial situation. Lithuanian news agency LRT reports that Polkovnikovas had fought in Ukraine for several months.
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