The Russian Federation is desperately trying to stop our offensive, for the Russians the epicentre of warfare remains the eastern front, announced the Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Defence Hanna Malyar. Those are strategic directions of their offensive.
"The enemy believes that by hitting the East, they will be able to significantly change the situation on the front. Therefore, the greatest efforts are currently being made in the East," said the government official.
Yesterday and today, Ukrainian troops are completely repelling enemy attacks in the Kupyansk, Lyman and Swativsk directions. The number of enemy shelling has increased and heavy fighting is going on.
Russian’s goal is to draw our forces away from the offensive direction and break through our defences, Malyar said.
In addition, in the Kupyan direction Russian troops want to return the territories lost last autumn. "This is a difficult and exhausting struggle, but our defenders do not give the enemy the opportunity to implement their plans," added the deputy minister.
According to her, the situation in the Bakhmut direction is also difficult. On the southern flank, our troops are gradually going through heavy artillery fire and mining, but continue to move forward. "The enemy is attacking on the northern flank — we are repelling the attacks. Russians here wants to regain lost positions too," said Malyar.
Also, in the Avdiyiv and Mariinsky directions, fierce combat operations take place, but Ukrainians do not allow the enemy to advance.
In the south, the Defence Forces of Ukraine continue to conduct an offensive operation in the Melitopol and Berdyansk directions. "The enemy is fiercely resisting. In addition to continuous mining, the enemy equipped protected concrete engineering fortifications on key commanding heights. In such difficult conditions, our troops are gradually but very persistently moving forward," concluded Malyar.
The representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Defence Ministry Vadym Skibitskyy said that the situation on the battlefield is difficult, but the Ukrainian Armed Forces have an advantage. He noted that defenders need more weapons as the course of battles depends on it and its effective use.