After several months of preparation and planning, on June 4, Ukrainian troops began military operations in the South and East, which continued a series of offensive actions near Bakhmut and the Belgorod region. With the use of Leopard and Challenger 2 tanks, Marder 1 and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, and self-propelled howitzers received from Western partners, the Ukrainian Defense Forces became active on the flanks of Bakhmut, managing to nullify several months of enemy advance in a matter of days. And in the first days of June, Ukrainian troops began offensive actions in the southern operational zone, liberating more than 130 square kilometers of the territory. In an attempt to disrupt the counteroffensive and lower the morale of Ukrainians, on the night of June 6, the occupiers blew up the dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station to make the Dnipro an impassable obstacle for the Ukrainian counteroffensive. But the calculation of the russians turned out to be wrong – the water destroyed numerous russian positions on the southern bank of the river.
It is not surprising that russian propaganda launched a large-scale special information operation to level and discredit the counteroffensive of Ukrainian troops. The main narrative of the kremlin propagandists is the assertion that the situation has reached a dead end and Ukraine will not be able to return most of its territories. A group of russian “military personnel” and “experts” who have never served in the army, but who are trying to create a nice picture of the failure of the Ukrainian offensive in the minds of the russian audience, are involved in commenting on the hostilities by the russians.
At the same time, assessments of the situation in Ukraine by independent Western military personnel who have practical experience in combat operations in Syria, Libya, or Afghanistan indicate otherwise.
Thus, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Great Britain, T. Radakin, resolutely rejects russian objections to the slow advance of the Ukrainian military and emphasizes that Ukraine’s strategy at this stage is to destroy the defense line of the russian occupiers by “depleting, stretching and launching strikes.” In addition, the British commander-in-chief is sure that the russian army has lost almost half of its fighting capacity in Ukraine and is now so weak that it does not have the strength for its counteroffensive.
British Minister of Defense B. Wallace assured that as part of the summer counteroffensive campaign, Ukraine has already liberated more territory than russia captured during the entire winter offensive.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is currently in its initial stages, and the main events will take place in the coming weeks and months.
Military experts of the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) are confident that “slow and gradual campaigns” to block areas of concentration of russians on the eastern bank of the Kherson region and limited ground attacks on the western bank will force the russians to finally withdraw from the right bank in mid-November.
The head of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral R. Bauer, is convinced that the course of the Ukrainian counteroffensive deserves praise and urges to refrain from criticizing the pace of the Ukrainian troops’ advance. He noted that “Ukraine has better training and much higher morale and motivation than russia.”
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the USA M. Milley said that Ukrainian counteroffensive operations are currently moving more slowly for tactical reasons, but the Defense Forces are advancing confidently and purposefully.
The American general and former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, D. Petraeus, explained that the counteroffensive is at an initial stage, but the Armed Forces of Ukraine, with the support of Western allies, can overcome the defensive fortifications that the russians have been preparing for months.
In general, the Western media and experts expect that the advance of Ukrainian troops will be slower and more deadly than last year during the liberation of the Kharkiv region and the right bank of the Kherson region.
❗️So, it can be argued that the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is proceeding according to plan and has not yet begun in full. The Ukrainian side has not yet engaged the main military reserves, in particular, the brigades trained in the West and equipped with modern NATO tanks and armored vehicles. Therefore, the main blow is yet to come. At this stage of the counteroffensive, the main task of the Defense Forces is the maximum destruction of manpower, equipment, fuel depots, ammunition, command posts, artillery, and air defense forces of the russian army. At present, Ukrainian troops have seized the enemy’s strategic initiative and are conducting an offensive with a wide front in all directions, in particular on the flanks around Bakhmut. In fact, in the last few weeks, Ukraine has gained more positions than russia has in the last year, and russian losses are 8-10 times greater than Ukrainian losses. However, according to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine V. Zaluzhnyi, the Ukrainian army needs more weapons, in particular, F-16 fighters, to advance the counteroffensive more quickly.
