Volodymyr Zelenskiy cited a “positive mood” in his first comments about Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian occupying forces. Ukraine’s president wouldn’t discuss the scale of operations, which remain unclear. Kyiv’s forces conducted operations in at least four areas on Saturday, according to the Institute for the Study of War. Geolocated footage “indicates that Ukrainian forces in western Zaporizhzhia oblast made localized gains during counterattacks southwest and southeast of Orikhiv, a
(Bloomberg) — Volodymyr Zelenskiy cited a “positive mood” in his first comments about Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian occupying forces. Ukraine’s president wouldn’t discuss the scale of operations, which remain unclear. Kyiv’s forces conducted operations in at least four areas on Saturday, according to the Institute for the Study of War. Geolocated footage “indicates that Ukrainian forces in western Zaporizhzhia oblast made localized gains during counterattacks southwest and southeast of Orikhiv, and Russian milbloggers continued to claim that Russian forces in this area are successfully defending against attempted Ukrainian advances,” the US-based analysts said.
The ground activity comes against a backdrop of continued missile and drone bombardments by Russia of targets across Ukraine. Six more Shahed drones were downed overnight in the Kharkiv and Sumy regions in Ukraine’s northeast. French President Emmanuel Macron, in a lengthy call on Saturday, called on his Iranian counterpart to stop providing drones to Russia.
The visit to Kyiv on Saturday by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came a month ahead of the key NATO summit in Vilnius. Zelenskiy is pushing for a path to membership of the military alliance, which Trudeau said Canada supports “as soon as conditions allow for it.” The UK defense ministry said the collapse of Ukraine’s Kakhovka Dam last week “has almost certainly severely disrupted the occupied Crimean peninsula’s primary source of fresh water.” The water level in the Kakhovka reservoir continues to decline.
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