Russia-Ukraine war news: Kyiv makes new counteroffensive push in southern battlefield
Ukraine live briefing: Kyiv presses counteroffensive in south; Zelensky meets commanders in Dnipro Ukrainian troops fire toward Russian troops in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region on Sunday. (Reuters)
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Ukraine says it has launched a new push against Russian lines, achieving some gains in the south of the country. A U.S. official said it was unclear “what the purpose of those moves may be,” adding that it could be the result of fresh troops probing Russian lines or replacing fatigued units.
As Kyiv moves to ramp up its counteroffensive, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the central city of Dnipro, where he held a meeting with military commanders on Thursday. He said they discussed the situation on the front lines, supplies of munitions to troops and reinforcing air defenses.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
Key developments
Ukraine’s military made advances in the country’s southern Zaporizhzhia region, The Washington Post reported, citing Ukrainian officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters. Kyiv is “gradually advancing” toward the southern cities of Melitopol and Berdyansk, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said, without elaborating on how far they had moved.
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Odessa’s governor said Russian forces hit port infrastructure in the Black Sea region in an overnight missile attack. The strike killed a security guard and damaged equipment at a cargo terminal, Oleh Kiper said Thursday on Telegram. The Ukrainian air force said it shot down 36 missiles launched at the country a day earlier.
Ukraine’s counteroffensive is not a stalemate but is not progressing as quickly as hoped, according to U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. The Ukrainians are “not just frozen. The Ukrainians are moving,” he told reporters.
The White House is exploring “less efficient” land routes to export grain from Ukraine, after Russia withdrew from the Black Sea grain deal last week. The United States expects Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports to last “for some time,” Kirby said Wednesday, adding that truck or rail alternatives were not as efficient. Washington is in talks with European and Ukrainian partners to find overland routes, he added.
Battleground updates
The goal of Ukraine’s latest military push is to reach the Sea of Azov. Though Ukrainian forces remain far from the sea, that would allow Ukraine to sever Russia’s land bridge to annexed Crimea, a key conduit for moving Russian forces and equipment into Ukraine, The Post reported.
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Moscow and Kyiv both acknowledged intense fighting around the town of Robotyne in the south but offered different accounts. Russia’s Defense Ministry said an attack on the Russian-held area in Ukraine was repelled, claiming that its troops had killed many Ukrainian soldiers. A Ukrainian official said the country’s forces had suffered some casualties but denied Russian artillery had pushed them to retreat. The Post could not immediately verify either claim.
Russia has partially destroyed five civilian vessels and 26 pieces of port infrastructure since withdrawing from the Black Sea grain deal, Ukraine’s infrastructure minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov, said. He also accused Russia of restricting shipping near Crimea and the territorial waters of Bulgaria.
Global impact
Swedish officials accused the Kremlin of backing a disinformation campaign against Stockholm. Russian-backed actors are “amplifying incorrect statements such as that the Swedish state is behind the desecration of holy scriptures,” Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin said, according to Reuters. Copies of the Quran have been burned at demonstrations in the country, triggering outrage among Muslim communities, including in NATO member Turkey. Sweden, which is set to join NATO, has maintained that it does not support burning the holy book, but it cannot block such acts during protests because of free-speech laws. The Russian Embassy in Stockholm did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Thursday.
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The United States will cooperate with the International Criminal Court’s investigation into war crimes in Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday in New Zealand. Washington is not party to the statute that set up the ICC. “We’ve made clear that there needs to be accountability for those who have committed war crimes in Ukraine,” Blinken told reporters. “We support the ICC’s investigation.” The Pentagon has been cautious about such cooperation, fearing it might set a precedent that exposes U.S. personnel to investigations for actions elsewhere.
Russia’s defense minister handed a letter from President Vladimir Putin to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, North Korean state media reported. The Russian minister is on a visit to Pyongyang, which is marking the 70th anniversary of the armistice of the Korean War. North Korean media quoted Defense Minister Kang Sun Nam as saying Pyongyang fully supports the “just struggle of the Russian army and people.”
From our correspondents
Putin courts Africa at summit, but many African leaders stay away: Putin will host African leaders in St. Petersburg on Thursday, in a gathering designed to portray Moscow as a great power with many global friends, Robyn Dixon and Katharine Houreld report.
But only 16 heads of state will attend, fewer than the 43 who came to the first Russia-Africa summit in 2019, in “a sign of dismay in African nations about a war that has raised food and fuel prices, hurting vulnerable populations,” they write.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov blamed the West for the reduced number, claiming there had been “brazen interference” from the United States, France and others to dissuade them from attending.
Michael Birnbaum in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed to this report.
Source: The Washington Post
