Posted on 06/05/2023 3:59:31 PM PDT by Mariner
Ukrainian forces mounted attacks at several points along the front line in a sign that Kyiv was stepping up a long-awaited counter offensive.
Ukraine did not directly comment on the reports, but the general in command of its ground forces said they “continue to move forward”.
The reported assaults follow weeks of probing attacks, including raids and drone strikes on Russia itself, designed to stretch Moscow’s defences ahead of the offensive.
But Western officials told The Economist that the attacks “mark the start of the offensive”, adding that Russia’s defensive lines “could be more fragile than thought”.
Russian sources also reported seeing Western-supplied Leopard tanks in the battlefield, suggesting Nato-trained forces had joined the front lines for the first time.
The Russian ministry of defence claimed to have defeated a “large-scale” attack in the “southern Donetsk direction”.
“The enemy’s goal was to break through our defences in the most vulnerable, in its opinion, sector of the front,” Maj Gen Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the ministry, said. “The enemy did not achieve its tasks. It had no success.”
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
They are the official UK mouthpiece of NATO.
All hail Gen. Felix Steiner!
I bet those Leopard tanks are specially targeted. Good tank, sure. But a real trophy for Russian forces. I would not want to be in the crew.
That has nothing to do with the war in Ukraine.
So far, looks like probing attacks at this point. Possibly to distract and try to draw Russian forces away from where the real counter-offensive attacks will begin. But really, who knows? Fog of war and all that.
“Possibly to distract and try to draw Russian forces away from where the real counter-offensive attacks will begin”
I expect Ukraine to attempt to drive from Bakhmut, south to Mariupol...thus cutting the Russian supply lines to Crimea.
Green T Shirt man gonna find one of those hypersonics targeting his bedside clock radio.
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