Ukraine Inflicts Big Losses On Russia In the Country's South

Ukraine is keeping up the pressure on depleted Russian forces as Putin tries to divide and conquer by falsely claiming he wants to negotiate. JL 

James Marson and Evan Gershkovich report in the Wall Street Jouirnal:

Ukraine’s military said it was inflicting heavy losses on Russian forces in the south of the country in an area that military analysts suggest could be the next target for a Ukrainian offensive. Ukrainian forces are seeking to maintain momentum. In recent weeks, they have carried out strikes on Russian military facilities and transport infrastructure in the south of the country, in what analysts say could be a preparatory phase for a thrust south toward the Black Sea. A Ukrainian advance there would cut critical lines of supply between Russia and Crimea

Ukraine’s military said it was inflicting heavy losses on Russian forces in the south of the country in an area that military analysts suggest could be the next target for a Ukrainian offensive.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said that the losses had forced Russian troops to set up a field hospital at a hotel complex in the city of Berdyansk. 

Ukrainian officials posted footage of what they said was a Ukrainian strike on a Russian headquarters in Tokmak, a Russian-occupied transport hub.

And the Ukrainian mayor of Melitopol, a Russian-occupied city, said a local police commander who was collaborating with the occupation administration was injured when the car he was traveling in exploded. Russian state news agency TASS reported on the car explosion but didn’t identify the occupants of the vehicle. Partisans have carried out several attacks in the area that have targeted senior collaborators.

 

After recapturing swaths of territory around the northeastern city of Kharkiv and the southern city of Kherson, Ukrainian forces are seeking to maintain momentum. In recent weeks, they have carried out strikes on Russian military facilities and transport infrastructure in the south of the country, in what analysts say could be a preparatory phase for a thrust south toward the Black Sea. A Ukrainian advance there would cut critical lines of supply between Russia and Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that Russia has occupied since 2014.

Russia has begun taking defensive measures in Crimea, most recently starting engineering work on defensive positions along a highway that spans the top of the peninsula where it meets mainland Ukraine.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday that Moscow’s forces were continuing offensive operations in Bakhmut, a town in eastern Ukraine where Russia had funneled soldiers and fighters from the Wagner paramilitary group to make small advances over several months.

In Mariupol in eastern Ukraine, which Russia seized in May after weeks of brutal assaults, authorities have begun tearing down the remains of the city’s performing-arts theater, according to videos posted by Ukrainian officials.

Ukrainian authorities say more than 300 civilians who were sheltering in the building were killed when it was hit in a Russian airstrike in March.

The videos, posted on Telegram by Ukraine’s culture minister and an aide to the city’s Ukrainian mayor, showed an excavator pulling down walls behind the building’s facade.

The aide, Petro Andryushchenko, said Russia was trying to cover up the murder of Ukrainians and appeared intent on leaving the facade standing and rebuilding the rest “on the bones of the dead.”  

Russia blames Ukraine for the destruction of the city, which it says it is rebuilding.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday that Russian forces had made significant progress toward Moscow’s stated, but undefined, goal of demilitarizing Ukraine. He said that while any conflict ends at the negotiating table, there are currently no contacts between Washington and Moscow on how to end the war and that the Kremlin isn’t in the loop on a reported Ukrainian peace plan. 

During his whirlwind trip to Washington this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Congress that Kyiv was developing a peace formula, following recent discussions by Ukrainian officials of a 10-point plan. Mr. Zelensky’s team is currently fleshing out the plan and aims to present its ideas on or around the first anniversary of Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, according to European and Ukrainian diplomats.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday visited a weapons research and production facility in the city of Tula south of Moscow, where he said he inspected high-precision weapons and armored vehicles.

“The key task on the agenda today is for defense industry companies to provide the units on the front line with required equipment, gear and ammunition within a short time-frame,” he said in brief televised remarks.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, meanwhile, visited Russian arms manufacturer the Kalashnikov Group’s plant in the city of Izhevsk in central Russia on Friday. A video released by the Defense Ministry showed Mr. Shoigu inspecting what it said were Kalashnikov’s assault and sniper rifles, precision-guided munitions and portable air-defense systems, and telling the company’s general director that the plant’s state contracts would be significantly increased next year. 

In St. Petersburg, an opposition politician on Friday asked prosecutors in a symbolic move to investigate Mr. Putin for using the word “war” in a televised news conference a day earlier. “Our goal is not to spin this flywheel of a military conflict, but, on the contrary, to end this war,” the Russian president said.

Mr. Putin had for 10 months referred to his invasion as a special military operation and in March signed laws that criminalize discrediting and spreading false news about the Russian armed forces. Dozens of Russians have faced criminal charges for speaking out against the war and are at risk for even uttering the word.