The village of Pyatychatky in the Zaporizhia region is said to have been recaptured from Ukraine. That’s what a governor appointed by Russia claims. But much of the situation remains unclear and contradictory.
Heavy fighting between advancing Ukrainian units and the Russian army is reported from the Zaporizhia region. The village of Pjatychatky is said to have been liberated by Ukrainian units. At least that’s what Russia’s administration official Vladimir Rogov reports in his Telegram channel. “The enemy’s wave-like offensives were successful despite enormous casualties.” Hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers were killed.
The place is now being shelled by Russian artillery, Rogov said. The aim is to encircle and destroy the troops.
Russia had taken and annexed parts of the Zaporizhia region. The regional capital of the same name and other parts are still under Ukrainian control.
conflicting parties as a source
Information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian conflict parties cannot be directly checked by an independent body in the current situation.
Two Ukrainian attack corridors?
According to information from the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” there are two axes of attack by the Ukrainian army in the Zaporizhia area, both of which point south. The western thrust around Orikhiw was probably aimed at the heavily fortified city of Tokmak. Pjatychatky is in this combat zone.
According to the military expert Gustav Gressel from the ECFR think tank, every Ukrainian attack is currently being met with Russian counterattacks, so that some towns are conquered and lost again and again. The Russian side is often relying on better-trained units.
According to the Ukraine, the second axis of attack around Welyka Nowosilka has so far recorded the larger territorial gains. Less than a week later, the liberation of some villages was announced.
No details from Kyiv
There is no confirmation from the Ukrainian side that Pjatychatky has been taken. This is not unusual, as the Kiev authorities are generally less public at the moment so as not to endanger the counter-offensive that has probably begun.
The Ukrainian armed forces only reported fighting on several sectors of the front. Russian units attacked at Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Marinka and Lyman. Footage was also circulated purporting to show an attack on a Russian ammunition depot near the town of Henichek in occupied Kherson Oblast.
Shaded: territories occupied by Russia
According to the Defense Ministry in Moscow, all Ukrainian attacks were repelled both in the Zaporizhia region and further east towards Donetsk.
As evidence, drone videos of military vehicles being destroyed by artillery fire or drone strikes were again shown. The recordings cannot be assigned either in terms of time or location.
London: Heavy casualties on both sides
According to the public assessment of the British Ministry of Defense, the Ukrainian counter-offensive is progressing slowly and with heavy casualties on both sides. The fiercest fighting raged in the Zaporizhia region, around Bakhmut and further west in the Donetsk region, the ministry tweeted.
Ukrainian troops have made minor progress, but Russian defenses in the south are quite effective.
Ukrainian officer with dampened hopes
However, a Ukrainian officer deployed at the front warned against associating the Ukrainian counter-offensive with expectations of an end to the war. “There is still a long way to go until then,” said Lieutenant Colonel Serhiy Osachuk, who was deployed at the Donbass front, to the editorial network Germany.
He spoke positively about the course of the attacks in his sector of the front – the armed forces continued to advance every day. If you compare the war in Ukraine with the First World War, “then we are in 1916, no further,” said the doctor of history.