Ukraine claimed on Friday it had recaptured the town of Andrivka, south of the occupied eastern city of Bakhmut, a move that would allow its troops to advance on the right flank or east in its counteroffensive.
“During the offensive operations, Ukrainian forces captured Andrivka in the Donetsk region, inflicting significant losses on the enemy in personnel and equipment and consolidating their new positions,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said.
Andrivka is about 10 kilometers south of Bakhmut and was captured by Russian troops last May. His liberation represents an important step forward for Ukraine.
“The Restoration of the Andrivka village It is our path to a breakthrough on Bakhmut’s right flank and the key to the success of the entire offensive that followed,” explained the third separate assault brigade of the 72nd Motorized Rifle Brigade.
The Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Hanna Maliarhad announced the recapture of Andrivka the day before and then made it clear that the The situation is “very complex and changing”.
Andrivka is a small village where 77 people lived before the Russian invasion and where hostilities began in September 2022. All houses were damaged and residents were evacuated to other, safer Ukrainian regions.
A COMPLETELY DESTROYED VILLAGE
Photos of Andrivka, which was part of Ivanivka District, show that nothing remains of the city, not even a place where the Ukrainian flag could be raised.
A few hours later, the Kastus-Kalinousk Regiment, a group of Belarusian volunteers formed to defend Ukraine against Russian aggression, announced its entry into the city with a video purportedly recorded in neighboring Klishchivka.
However, according to the newspaper Ukrainska Pravda, the video was later deleted from his Telegram channel.
Ukrainian authorities have not yet announced the restoration of Klischivka. The General Staff noted in its morning report that Ukrainian troops “achieved partial successes near” the city.
Russia did not mention Andrivka in its own report, but assured that the units of the South group repelled four attacks by Ukrainian forces in the Klishchivka and Mayorsk regions in the last day.
Ukraine announced further progress in southern Bakhmut this week.
According to Maliar, since the start of its counteroffensive in the east and south of the country on June 4, Ukraine has liberated 49 square kilometers around this occupied city.
In the south, progress was greater at 256.5 square kilometersparticularly towards the occupied town of Melitopol in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, through the liberation of Robotine and heading west of Verbove.
This front is considered more important from a strategic point of view, because if the Kiev troops manage to break through Russia’s second line of defense there, they will be a big step closer to their goal of cutting the land corridor that Russia has created on the coast of Azov from Donbas to the annexed Crimea.
RUSSIA SIGNES THOUSANDS OF CONTRACTS WITH VOLUNTEERS
Given the Ukrainian advance, Russian troops have no choice but to conduct “active defense,” as Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu put it, on both fronts.
The Russian President, Wladimir PutinIn turn, as a warning to Kiev, today said that about 300,000 Russians had signed contracts with the army since the beginning of 2023, a figure that is in addition to the same number of mobilized people and soldiers who were already in the army.
This in front of his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenkowhom the European Parliament described on Wednesday as an “complicit” in the crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine.
As the two presidents discussed Ukraine and the North Korean leader’s official visit to Russia in the resort city of Sochi, Kim Jong Unthe President of Ukraine, Volodymyr ZelenskI met in Kiev with the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan.
On his Telegram channel called the arrest warrant issued by the ICC against Putin “historic” for the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children and assured that there will be “fairer outcomes” so that Russia can be “held accountable for its war crimes.”
