Ukraine on Monday claimed to have retaken 37 square kilometers in its east and south in a week as part of its counter-offensive, while reporting that Russian troops are also on the attack in other areas of the front. .
The Russian security services (FSB) for their part assured that they had foiled a bomb attack prepared according to them by Kiev to assassinate the leader installed by Moscow in Crimea, a peninsula annexed in 2014.
Ukrainian forces launched a large-scale operation in early June to retake territories occupied by Russia, but gains have so far been limited due to a strong Russian defense and a lack of military air force and ammunition. ‘artillery.
In the south, “the liberated territories have increased by 28.4 square kilometers”, bringing to 158 km2 the total area recovered in this area since the launch of the counter-offensive, said Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar.
In the east, where Ukrainian troops are fighting especially around the devastated city of Bakhmout, kyiv’s gains have only reached 9 km2according to her.
“The enemy is resisting strongly, a very tough duel is underway,” said Ms. Maliar, while Moscow has been building defensive lines for months based on trenches and minefields.
On the other side of the front, the Russian army launched attacks in the sectors of Avdiïvka, Mariïnka and Lyman, to which has been added since the end of last week that of Svatové. All these areas are located on the eastern front, where “fierce fighting” takes place, said Mr.me Maliar on Sunday.
Tense
On the Russian side, the security services, the FSB, said on Monday that they had arrested a man accused of an assassination bomb attempt on the pro-Moscow leader of annexed Crimea, Sergei Aksionov.
According to the FSB, this man was “recruited by officers of the SBU”, the Ukrainian security services, and had undergone training in subversive intelligence in Ukraine, including explosives.
“The bomber did not have time to carry out his criminal intent because he was arrested when he was recovering an explosive device from a cache,” the FSB said.
Blamed on kyiv by Moscow, several attacks that have killed or injured Russian occupation officials in Ukraine have taken place since the start of the Russian invasion in 2022.
While analysts believe that Ukraine has not yet launched the bulk of its newly trained and Western-armed forces into its counteroffensive, the apparent slowness of the operation, especially compared to the successes of previous counterattacks Kiev’s offensives in the northeast and south last year seem to have stirred up tensions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, receiving Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Saturday, criticized Kiev’s Western partners on the pace of training Ukrainian airmen, accustomed to Soviet MiGs and Sukhoi, in piloting F-16s. .
“Invitation” into NATO
“There is no training mission schedule. I think some partners are dragging their feet. Why do they do it? I don’t know,” Mr. Zelensky said.
The commander of the Ukrainian army Valery Zaloujny had annoyed him in an interview with washington post Friday of Westerners’ impatience to see progress on the ground against Russian forces.
“It swells me,” he said, while urging to speed up the deliveries of the promised F-16s.
US Chief of Staff Mark Milley, from Washington, replied that the US and its allies are doing what they can to send what Ukraine needs.
These developments on the ground come a week before an important NATO meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, during which the allies must formulate a common position on the security guarantees they are ready to give to Ukraine, failing of a promise of accelerated membership.
Ukraine has multiplied in recent weeks the declarations asking for “clarity” on its prospects for joining the Alliance. To the chagrin of kyiv, US President Joe Biden warned on June 17 that Ukraine would not receive preferential treatment.
Volodymyr Zelensky demanded on Saturday that his country receive a “very clear and intelligible signal”, an “invitation” according to which his country could “become a full member of NATO after the war”.