Ukrainian military officials yesterday said their troops have retaken another southeastern village from Russian forces, among the first — small — successes in stepped-up counteroffensive operations against Moscow’s more than 15-month invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Maliar wrote on Telegram that Ukraine’s flag was again flying over the village of Storozhov, and she predicted the liberation of “all Ukrainian land” would the final outcome.
A day earlier, Ukrainian officials said three other small villages clustered together south of the town of Velika Novosilke in the eastern Donetsk region had been liberated.
Photo: AP
The villages are in the so-called “Vremivka ledge,” a section of the front line where the Russian-controlled area protrudes into territory held by Ukraine. The area has become one of several epicenters of intense fighting.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has not confirmed the Russian retreat from the villages, but some military bloggers have acknowledged the loss of Russian control over them.
Meanwhile, Russian authorities have said their troops have largely held their ground along the more than 1,000km arc of front line along southern and eastern Ukraine.
Western analysts and military officials have cautioned any effort to rid entrenched, powerfully armed and skilled Russian troops would likely take months, and the success of any Ukrainian counteroffensive is far from certain.
On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said “counteroffensive, defensive actions are taking place” without specifying it was an all-out counteroffensive, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin asserted that the counteroffensive had started — and Ukrainian forces were taking “significant losses.”
He did not elaborate, and Ukrainian authorities have not publicly specified losses among their troops.
The reported Ukrainian advance comes as authorities on both sides of the active front line along the Dnieper River in the southern Kherson region pressed on with rescue and relocation efforts for civilians driven from their homes by flooding from the breach of the Kakhovka dam last week.
The UN and other aid groups say access to fresh drinking water is a crucial need and the possible spread of water-borne disease a big worry.
On Sunday, a local official said three people were killed when Moscow’s troops opened fire at a boat evacuating people from Russian-
occupied areas.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
China has built a land-based prototype nuclear reactor for a large surface warship, in the clearest sign yet Beijing is advancing toward producing the nation’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, according to a new analysis of satellite imagery and Chinese government documents provided to The Associated Press. There have long been rumors that China is planning to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, but the research by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California is the first to confirm it is working on a nuclear-powered propulsion system for a carrier-sized surface warship. Why is China’s pursuit of nuclear-powered carriers significant? China’s navy is already
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) launched a week-long diplomatic blitz of South America on Thursday by inaugurating a massive deep-water port in Peru, a US$1.3 billion investment by Beijing as it seeks to expand trade and influence on the continent. With China’s demand for agricultural goods and metals from Latin America growing, Xi will participate in the APEC summit in Lima then head to the Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro next week, where he will also make a state visit to Brazil. Xi and Peruvian President Dina Boluarte participated on Thursday by video link in the opening
IT’S A DEAL? Including the phrase ‘overlapping claims’ in a Chinese-Indonesian joint statement over the weekend puts Jakarta’s national interests at risk, critics say Indonesia yesterday said it does not recognize China’s claims over the South China Sea, despite signing a maritime development deal with Beijing, as some analysts warned the pact risked compromising its sovereign rights. Beijing has long clashed with Southeast Asian neighbors over the South China Sea, which it claims almost in its entirety, based on a “nine-dash line” on its maps that cuts into the exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of several countries. Joint agreements with China in the strategic waterway have been sensitive for years, with some nations wary of deals they fear could be interpreted as legitimizing Beijing’s vast claims. In 2016,
RSS