Ukraine is counting on the campaign in the south-east to drive Russian forces from more of its territory, cementing support among its allies.
| Ukraine’s new NATO-standard tanks and fighting vehicles are appearing in battlefield images as military analysts said Kyiv’s long-awaited counteroffensive is getting underway.
It remains unclear whether the Ukrainian operations are the spearhead of a main attack or efforts to expose weak spots in Russian defences, according to a European official.The offensive comes as Russian forces on Thursday shelled a southern Ukrainian city inundated by flooding in a catastrophic dam collapse, Ukrainian officials said, forcing a suspension of some rescue efforts hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky went to the area to assess the damage.
“The counteroffensive won’t likely unfold as a single grand operation,” the Institute for the Study of War said on Thursday. “It will likely consist of many undertakings at numerous locations of varying size and intensity over many weeks.” The Washington-based think tank said the initial phase may see the highest Ukrainian losses.
Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said on Thursday that fighting was underway in the south and around the eastern city of Bakhmut, but gave no additional information.
United Kingdom Latest News, United Kingdom Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Satellite pics reveal new Russian weapon in war against UkraineIran is providing Russia with materials to build a drone manufacturing plant east of Moscow as the Kremlin looks to lock in a steady supply of weaponry for its ongoing invasion of Ukraine
Read more »
Russia-Ukraine war live: Ukrainian offensive is under way, says PutinRussian president says beginning of offensive ‘is evidenced by the use of strategic reserves’
Read more »
'Left them to perish': Residents trapped in Russian-occupied Kherson say they have been abandonedWaking to a flooded house in the middle of the night, Viktoria was in despair at the prospect of getting her elderly parents to safety without the help of the Russians occupying her town. Then a friend came to the rescue.
Read more »
Ukrainian supporters rally outside Russian embassy in CanberraUkrainian supporters have been regularly organising rallies outside the Russian embassy in Canberra and around Australia over Russia's war against Ukraine, according to Political Analyst Aidan Smith. “We have genocide, we have ecocide, we have Putin now launching another scale of attacks on the dam,” Mr Smith told Sky News Australia. “What we’re doing now is trying to alert the world that we have another catastrophe –this is probably the biggest catastrophe according to the UN since the Chernobyl disaster.”
Read more »
‘Warsaw feels like a mini Soviet Union’: how Russian is gaining ground in Poland’s capitalMany from Ukraine, Belarus and other ex-Soviet states mostly get by in Russian – but its prevalence is starting to cause a problem
Read more »