Zelensky: Ukraine’s counterattack ‘difficult’, but ‘moving forward’ | Ukraine and Russia

On Monday (12), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Ukrainian army’s counterattack is “difficult”, but it is “moving forward”, after his government confirmed that its forces had regained at least seven villages occupied by Russian forces.

“The fight is difficult, but we are moving forward, and this is very important,” Zelensky said in his daily address. “I thank our boys for every Ukrainian flag that returns to its rightful place in the villages of the newly vacated lands,” he added.

“The enemy’s losses are exactly the level we need,” he noted. “The weather is not favorable – the rain makes our work more difficult – but the strength of our soldiers yields good results,” he asserted.

Not long ago, the Ukrainian government announced that, since the start of the weekend, it had recaptured seven villages in the south and east of the country.

The deputy minister explained that the cities of Lubkovo, Levadin and Novodarevka, which are near Zaporizhia, have been recovered, as well as Storozhev in the south of Donetsk province. He emphasized that “the area of ​​land that passed under our control is 90 square kilometres.”

On Monday, the Ukrainian army said it was advancing in the vicinity of Bakhmut.

“The Ukrainian forces advanced from 250 to 700 meters towards Bakhmut,” the defense ministry said. For its part, Moscow indicated that it had repulsed Ukrainian attacks in the Donetsk region, near Velika Novoselka, as well as near Livadny.

Information provided by both Moscow and Kiev cannot be independently verified.

According to military experts, Ukraine has not yet thrown most of its forces into its counterattack and is analyzing the battlefront with multiple attacks to identify weaknesses.

French President Emmanuel Macron also indicated that the Ukrainian counteroffensive had begun, estimating that it could last “several weeks, or even months”.

For his part, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said he hoped the success of the counterattack would force Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate.

“The success of this counterattack could do two things: It would strengthen [da Ucrânia] at the negotiating table and could have the effect of finally pushing Putin to negotiate an end to the war he started.”

On the outskirts of Moscow, today Putin visited a military hospital and decorated a number of wounded soldiers in Ukraine.

In photos released by the Kremlin, Putin and his defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, are shown alongside wounded men in blue medical overalls, some in wheelchairs.

Until now, Putin has rarely appeared alongside the forces fighting in the conflict.

For analysts of the American Research Institute for the Study of War (ISW), “Ukrainian forces made visually proven progress in the west of Donetsk province and in the west of Zaporizhia region, which was confirmed by Russian sources, but tried to downplay.”

Today, the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that its Argentine director, Rafael Grossi, will travel to Ukraine tomorrow to inspect the Zaporizhia power plant and analyze the impact of the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam on the Dnieper River.

After passing through the Ukrainian capital, Grossi will go to the central Russian-occupied ZNPP “to assess the situation and organize a new course for specialists.”

Since the invasion began, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency has warned of the risk of a nuclear accident at this plant in southeastern Ukraine, the largest in Europe.