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Kyiv's counteroffensive begins: Ukraine strikes back

2023-06-06T02:50:55.713Z

Highlights: Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malijar said that the area around Bakhmut remains "the center of the fighting" The Russian Defense Ministry claimed to have thwarted the offensive and killed more than 900 Ukrainians. The Wagner mercenaries and the Russian army are openly fighting each other. The Leopard main battle tanks, which originated in Germany, are part of Western arms deliveries to Kyiv. During the invasion of Russian territory on 23 May, US vehicles and weapons from the EU were also used by Russian opponents of Putin.



Ready to fire: Ukrainian soldiers now have all kinds of military equipment at their disposal. © IMAGO / Ukrinform

The large-scale Ukrainian offensive has begun. After Moscow declared that Ukraine was now attacking on a broad front, Kiev also confirmed in the late afternoon that there were "offensive actions" in some sectors of the front.

Munich/Kiev – Before the Ukrainian offensive officially began, the Ukrainian army had published a video of the counteroffensive, soldiers from different branches of the armed forces are holding their fingers in front of their mouths: Pssst. The message of the video: We keep silence. The Ukrainians have been wearing down the Russian aggressors for weeks with a confusion tactic: attacks on Russian regions such as Belgorod tie up Russian forces, Yesterday there were attacks on different sectors of the front.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malijar said that the area around Bakhmut remains "the center of the fighting" and that Ukraine is recording successes there. The Russian Defense Ministry, on the other hand, claimed to have thwarted the offensive and killed more than 900 Ukrainians. "The enemy's goal was to break through our defenses on the part of the front that he considered most vulnerable," Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

Ukraine war: Kyiv's counteroffensive begins

But the Russian field commander Alexander Khodakovsky contradicted the success story of his leadership. So far, the enemy is "accompanied by success," according to Khodakovsky. "Traditionally disrupting radio communications, the enemy has managed to put us in a difficult position," said Khodakovsky, who heads the Vostok brigade of separatists in the Donbas region. Ukraine is trying to grasp the weak points of defense. "For the first time, we saw leopards in our tactical space," Khodakovsky wrote on Telegram. The Leopard main battle tanks, which originated in Germany, are part of Western arms deliveries to Kyiv.

How great the tensions within the Russian aggressors have become is also shown by the fact that the Wagner mercenaries and the Russian army are openly fighting each other. Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin yesterday accused the Russian army of firing on his fighters during a mine clearance. Prigozhin circulated a video showing Wagner fighters humiliating the Russian officer named Roman Venevitin, who was captured and obviously beaten by them. Venevitin, commander of the 72nd Brigade, pleads "guilty" in the interrogation recorded on the video, to having fired at a car belonging to the Wagner mercenaries, together with ten to twelve other soldiers and in a drunken state. When asked why he did this, Venevin replies: "Out of personal dislike". Over the weekend, Prigozhin accused the Russian army of mining a road where his fighters wanted to leave Bakhmut.

Ukraine war: Kyiv confirms attacks against Russian troops

Meanwhile, there is also increasing criticism from the West of the fighting on Russian soil. During the invasion of Russian territory on 23 May, US vehicles and weapons from the EU were also used by Russian opponents of Putin. Investigations by the Washington Post confirm the Kremlin's account that the at least four military vehicles that the attackers had to leave behind on their flight came from Western arms shipments – three US MRAP jeeps and a Polish military transporter. The fighters of the self-proclaimed Legion of Freedom for Russia and the Russian Volunteer Corps militia also carried rifles from Belgium and the Czech Republic, as well as a Western-style bazooka. The Russian guerrilla fighters claim to have recaptured Western equipment from the Russian military, but the markings of the weapons that can be seen in photos make this seem less credible.

The Belgian government quite clearly called on Ukraine to "explain the situation." Prime Minister Alexander De Croo stated: "The rule is clear: weapons that we supply to Ukraine are intended for defensive purposes and for defending Ukrainian territory". Chancellor Olaf Scholz had also stressed "that the weapons we have supplied will only be used on Ukrainian territory. (Klaus Rimpel)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2023-06-06

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