Russia-Ukraine: Putin’s troops face ‘massive’ assault in Kyiv’s counteroffensive push

Kyiv has launched a major push to dislodge Russian forces from southeastern Ukraine as part of its weeks-long counteroffensive, committing thousands of troops to the battle in the country’s southeast, according to Western and Ukrainian officials and analysts.

The surge in troops and firepower has been centered on the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, a Western official said late Wednesday.

The official was not authorised to comment publicly on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The intense fighting is taking place in areas in the south and east of Ukraine, far from the capital Kyiv, and it was not possible to verify either side’s claims.

The Institute of Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, reported that Ukrainian forces launched “a significant mechanised counteroffensive operation in western Zaporizhzhia region” on Wednesday, adding that they “appear to have broken through certain pre-prepared Russian defensive positions.”

Two alleged agents for Ukrainian intelligence have been sentenced by a Russian court to 15 years each in a harsh-regime penal colony for espionage, Russian state media on Thursday quoted the FSB security service as saying.

The FSB did not name the accused people or say which court had passed the verdict.

Russia has frequently announced the arrests of alleged spies since launching its war in Ukraine 17 months ago.

The FSB said the defendants had been detained last year on suspicion of espionage and involvement in the deaths of Russian troops and destruction of equipment in the area of what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Russia‘s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Thursday it had found traces of explosives on board a foreign vessel en route from Turkey to Russia that had previously entered a Ukrainian port.

In a statement on its website, the FSB said that the BMO River, which had been travelling between the Turkish port of Sinop and Russia‘s Rostov-on-Don, had been ordered to leave Russian waters. The FSB said the ship had twice in June and July entered the Ukrainian port of Reni.

It was the second such announcement this week involving a foreign ship heading to Russia to pick up grain. The FSB said on Monday that it had found traces of explosives on another ship travelling from Turkey to Rostov-on-Don.

Russia last week pulled out of the Black Sea grain deal, which had allowed Ukraine to ship food from its southern ports despite the war, and said it would consider all ships travelling to Ukraine to be potentially transporting military cargo

The Wagner Group is a private military company under the control of Yevgeny Prigozhin that cut its teeth in deployments to Crimea – illegally annexed by Russia – and eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region in 2014 and has since dispatched troops to several conflicts in the Middle East and Africa, including the Syrian Civil War.

In Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Wagner has been a key part of Moscow’s fighting force, but a power struggle between the Kremlin and the outspoken Mr Prigozhin threatened – for 24 hours at least – to drag Russia towards civil war.

Russian forces struck port infrastructure in Ukraine‘s Odesa region in an overnight missile attack, killing a security guard and damaging a cargo terminal, the region’s governor said on Thursday.

Odesa’s ports have been regular targets for Russian attacks since Moscow withdrew on July 17 from a U.N.-brokered deal that allowed Ukrainian grain to be exported via the Black Sea.

Before the latest attack, Ukrainian Deputy Prime minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said Russian air strikes had damaged 26 port infrastructure facilities and five civilian vessels in the previous nine days. He gave no further details of the damage.

Odesa Governor Oleh Kiper said Russia fired Kalibr missiles at an unspecified port from a submarine in the Black Sea in the overnight attack. He said a security building had been destroyed and two cars damaged.

Ukraine‘s air force said two missiles were fired in the attack, and that it had been unable to shoot them down, but that air defences had shot down eight drones that Russia launched to attack other regions of Ukraine overnight.

Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine‘s southern military command, said an overnight thunderstorm had helped Russia in the overnight attack on the Odesa region.

“The enemy took advantage of the weather conditions, and launched the missile during the thunder and wind and at an extremely low height in order to make spotting them more difficult,” she said.

Humeniuk said air defences had been strengthened in certain areas, but that further strengthening was still needed.

Ukrainian troops are appear to be creeping closer to the eastern city of Bakhmut, the scene for some of the fiercest fighting of the war – and the military is about to receive a consignment of 1,700 strike and reconnaissance drones to help with its counteroffensive.

Hanna Maliar, the deputy defence minister, said Kyiv’s troops were successfully attacking in the east on the flanks of occupied Bakhmut and also reported advances towards the southern, occupied cities of Melitopol and Berdyansk which is on the Sea of Azov

Russia, which sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, holds swathes of territory in the south and east.

Russian air strikes have damaged 26 Ukrainian port infrastructure facilities and five civilian vessels over the course of nine days, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said in a statement late on Wednesday.

Russia hit more port infrastructure in Ukraine‘s Odesa region in an overnight missile attack, killing a security guard and damaging a cargo terminal, the region’s governor said on Thursday after Kubrakov’s statement.

Russian forces have hit port infrastructure in Ukraine’s Odesa region in overnight missile attack, killing a security guard and damaging a cargo terminal, the region’s governor said.

Odesa’s ports have been regular targets for Russian attacks since Moscow’s withdrawal from the Black Sea grain initiative last week.

The British Ministry of Defence warned yesterday that potential for the intensity and scope of violence in the Black Sea region is set to increase after Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has altered its posture since Moscow pulled out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative (BSGI). This is likely in preparedness to enforce a blockade on Ukraine, the ministry said yesterday.

It added that the grain initiative has moderated the involvement of the Black Sea in the war.

Russia refused to speak at a UN Security Council meeting called to dissuss Moscow’s recent devastating attacks on the key port of Odesa immediately following its refusal to extend the Black Sea grain deal, signalling escalation of Russia’s anger at Ukraine and its Western backers. The confrontation began at the start of a council session called by Russia on the divided Orthodox Church in Ukraine.

Russia’s deputy UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky ,protested that Britain, which holds the council presidency, was allowing only two briefers and Moscow wanted a third — Archbishop Gideon of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Ukrainian government has cracked down on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church over its historic ties to the Russian Orthodox Church, whose leader, Patriarch Kirill, supported Russian president Vladimir Putin over the invasion of Ukraine. Mr Polyansky accused the UK of bias, censorship and obstruction for limiting the number of briefers. Deputy British ambassador James Kariuki responded that because of a tight time schedule to fit in two council meetings, the UK had offered a compromise to allow a third Russian briefer to submit a statement to the council, which he said was “not unreasonable.”

Russia’s defence minister was taken by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to a defence exhibition that featured the North’s banned ballistic missiles as the neighbours pledged to boost ties, North Korean state media reported today.

The Russian minister, Sergei Shoigu, and a Chinese delegation including a Politburo member arrived in North Korea this week for the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War celebrated in North Korea as “Victory Day”.

The missiles were banned under UN Security Council resolutions adopted with Russian and Chinese support but this week they provided a striking backdrop for a show of solidarity by three countries united by their rivalry with the US.

While KCNA did not refer to the war in Ukraine, North Korea’s defence minister, Kang Sun Nam, was reported as saying North Korea fully supported Russia’s “battle for justice” and to protect its sovereignty.

Kim led Shoigu on a tour of an exhibition of new weapons and military equipment, KCNA said.

State media photographs showed Kim and his guests at a display of some of the North’s ballistic missiles in multi-axle transporter launchers. Another image showed what analysts said appeared to be a new drone.