Ukraine conflict: Zelenskyy claims progress in counter-offensive in opposition to Russians

Ukraine has claimed to be making progress in its counter-offensive within the japanese areas of the nation.

In his nightly video tackle, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported “excellent news” from the Kharkiv area east of Kyiv, saying that a number of settlements had been recaptured from Russian forces.

Zelensky declined to checklist the locations that had been retaken, saying that “now is just not the time to call the settlements to which the Ukrainian flag returns”.

He additionally thanked Ukrainian artillery troops for what he mentioned had been profitable strikes in opposition to Moscow’s forces within the south of Ukraine. 

“I believe each citizen feels pleased with our troopers,” he added.

On Wednesday, a senior Pentagon official mentioned that Ukrainian forces had been making “gradual however significant progress” on the battlefield and are at the moment doing higher within the south than Russia.

“It’s early days. I believe the Ukrainians are making gradual however significant progress. And we’ll see how issues pan out,” Underneath Secretary of Defence for Coverage Colin Kahl informed an occasion hosted by Defence Information. 

“However I definitely assume issues are going higher on the Ukrainian aspect proper now within the south than is true on the Russian aspect.”

Washington DC-based assume tank The Institute for the Examine of Battle estimates that Ukraine has retaken 400 sq. kilometres of territory within the east of the Kharkiv area, with the group saying that Ukrainian forces had been “possible exploiting Russian drive reallocation” to the south, attributable to Ukraine’s ongoing operations within the Kherson area, to “conduct an opportunistic but extremely efficient counteroffensive” northwest of Izyum.

Some stories have recommended that Ukrainian forces may very well be as shut as a couple of dozen kilometres from the town of Izyum, an essential a part of Russia’s army provide chain.

Nevertheless, it’s not solely been Ukrainian forces pushing ahead. In its nightly replace on Wednesday, the Ukrainian Basic Employees mentioned that it had “repelled all Russian assaults” within the Kharkiv and Donetsk areas, however that either side continued to change artillery and air strikes, inflicting harm to dozen of various locations.

In the meantime, shelling resumed on Wednesday close to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear energy plant, with either side casting blame on the opposite. This got here a day after the UN atomic watchdog company pressed for a secure zone across the energy plant to forestall a disaster.

The pinnacle of the UN’s Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company, Rafael Grossi, warned that “one thing very, very catastrophic may happen” on the Zaporizhzhia plant and urged Russia and Ukraine to determine a “nuclear security and safety safety zone” round it.

The most important concern is that preventing may set off a catastrophe on the size of the Chernobyl catastrophe in Ukraine in 1986.