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War in UkraineU.S. Officials See Signs of a Counteroffensive in Ukraine

2023-06-05

krainian forces have stepped up artillery strikes and ground assaults in a flurry of military activity that American officials suggested on Monday could signal that Kyiv’s long-planned counteroffensive against Russia had begun.

The fighting, which began on Sunday, was raging along several points on the front line, but to the east of where many analysts had expected Ukraine’s counteroffensive to begin. Even starting in that eastern area, experts said, would allow Kyiv’s troops to try to accomplish the same goal: Head south toward the Sea of Azov and cut off the land bridge connecting occupied Crimea to mainland Russia.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said on Monday that a major Ukrainian operation had begun at five locations in the eastern Donetsk region and that it had repelled the assaults and inflicted casualties on Ukrainian forces. Moscow’s report could not be independently corroborated.

Ukraine’s deputy minister of defense, Hanna Malyar, said on the Telegram messaging app that Kyiv’s forces were “moving to offensive actions,” continuing a defense that began when Russia invaded its neighbor 15 months ago. “A defensive operation includes everything,” she said, “including counteroffensive actions.”

The devastated city of Bakhmut, which Moscow captured after months of brutal fighting, was the epicenter of the fighting, she said. But Russian military bloggers said that a stronger Ukrainian attack had begun elsewhere in Donetsk on Monday morning, near the town of Velyka Novosilka. Mikhail Zvinchuk, a pro-Russian blogger who writes under the pseudonym Rybar, described intense fighting as Ukrainian soldiers in German-made Leopard tanks seized control of the nearby village of Novodonetske on Monday evening, a possible sign that Kyiv had pushed its NATO-trained forces into the battle.

Source:https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/06/05/world/russia-ukraine-news

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