Russian advances are forcing the Ukrainians to change their plans

Battles around Lehman
Russian advances are forcing the Ukrainians to change their plans

7/25/2023 8:26 PM

Kiev’s forces are making slow progress in their counter-offensive. While they say they are making gains near Bashmut, they are losing territory north of Liman. Now the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Ground Forces wants to adjust his tactics.

According to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, it has gained ground in eastern and southern Ukraine, but it is also having problems. “Given the difficult and contradictory situation in the Bakhmut and Liman sectors, we had to adjust our plans,” the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, Oleksandr Serskij, told Telegram.

A spokesman for the General Staff, Andrei Kovalyov, had spoken earlier about progress towards the village of Andreevka, south of the city of Bakhmut, which is controlled by Russia. In the southern part of the Donetsk region, Ukrainian forces advanced between 500 and 750 meters near the village of Staromagorsky.

The changes to the Ukrainian plan are believed to relate to the Russian advance from the Luhansk region towards the neighboring Kharkiv region, north of the Kiev-held city of Liman. According to consistent reports, Russian forces were said to have won on the ground west of Karmazinevka.

Attack on a Russian ammunition depot

The Russian army itself reported progress on the front line in the Donetsk region. The Ministry of Defense in Moscow said that the Russian soldiers advanced in the past twenty-four hours for a distance of up to two kilometers in the direction of Liman at a width of up to four kilometers. In the course of these “successful counterattacks” the Russian army captured the village of Serhivka.

According to unconfirmed local reports, there were explosions in the central part of Crimea, a Black Sea peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014. It was not clear if these were caused by the use of Russian air defense or actual effects. According to unconfirmed reports, it is possible that a military repair shop was hit. The day before, a Russian munitions depot near Dschankoy was attacked by air-to-surface missiles believed to be Storm Shadow.

Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian invasion for more than 17 months. The counterattack, which began about seven weeks ago, has not achieved any resounding success so far. A few weeks after the start of the counteroffensive, the Russian army made a new attempt to take full control of northeastern Ukraine. Two weeks ago she had already announced that she had advanced a mile to Lehmann. Liman is about 50 kilometers northeast of Kramatorsk, the largest Ukrainian-controlled city in eastern Ukraine.