Ukraine’s counter-offensive faces furious resistance from Russian forces

Kathmandu: Ukraine pressed counter-offensives on four main fronts during the 69th week of the war, but made frustratingly slow progress because of stiff resistance from Russian defensive positions.

On June 19, Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said over the previous week Ukrainian recaptured territory climbed to 113-square kilometres (44sq miles), only 13sq km (6sq miles) more than what Ukraine claimed it reconquered a week earlier.

‘The Russians are putting up a furious resistance,’ Maliar said, pointing out Russian troops fired an estimated 5,800 artillery rounds and 277,000 bullet rounds in just a week.

Ukraine’s offensives were focused on Bakhmut and Donetsk city in the east. In the south, at the border between Donetsk and Zaporizhizhia regions, Ukraine advanced 7km (3 miles) into Russian-held territory towards Melitopol, and it maintained an open front in western Zaporizhizhia, south of Orikhiv.

Maliar estimated killed or wounded Russians at 4,600 and destroyed equipment at 400 pieces of hardware.

Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu said Ukrainian forces launched 263 attacks against Russian positions since June 4. ‘All attacks have been repelled,’ he said.

Russia also claimed to have inflicted materiel losses. The leader of the ‘We are together with Russia Movement’ in Zaporizhizhia, Vladimir Rogov, said Russian long-range weapons struck Ukrainian ammunition warehouses in Zaporizhizhia city, inflicting a blow on the counteroffensive.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the war is ‘not a Hollywood movie’ and that Ukraine won’t negotiate with Russia until its forces have left his nation’s sovereign territory.

‘No matter how far we advance in our counter-offensive, we will not agree to a frozen conflict because that is war, that is a prospectless development for Ukraine,’ Zelensky told BBC Wednesday, ‘Some people believe this is a Hollywood movie and expect results now. It’s not.’

Zelensky added that while Ukraine has liberated eight villages so far, the counteroffensive was not going easily because 200,000 sq km (77,220 sq miles) of Ukrainian territory had been mined by Russian forces.