Ukraine rethinking counter-offensive after leak: report
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Russian forces have pressed attacks on frontline cities in eastern Ukraine while Ukrainian officials played down a report that they were amending some plans for a counter-offensive due to a leak of classified US documents.
Russian forces were pounding Ukrainian positions on Monday around besieged Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region and other cities and towns with air strikes and artillery barrages, Ukraine said.
“The enemy switched to so-called scorched earth tactics from Syria. It is destroying buildings and positions with air strikes and artillery fire,” Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, said of Bakhmut.
The small city on the edge of a chunk of Russian-controlled territory in Donetsk has for months been the biggest battleground of the war, now in its second year.
The head of the Russian-controlled part of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, said Russian forces controlled more than 75 per cent of the city.
Russia’s military was also targeting the city of Avdiivka.
“The Russians have turned Avdiivka into a total ruin,” said Pavlo Kyrylenko, Donetsk’s regional governor, describing an air strike on Monday that destroyed a multi-storey building.
“In total, around 1800 people remain in Avdiivka, all of whom risk their lives every day.”
As the battles ground on, US media outlet CNN reported that Ukraine had been forced to amend some military plans ahead of its long-anticipated counter-offensive because of the leak of US documents.
US officials are trying to trace the source of the leak of dozens of secret documents.
They detail an array of topics, including information on the Ukraine conflict, in which the United States has supplied the country with huge amounts of weapons and led international condemnation of Russia’s invasion.
Asked about the report, Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said Ukraine’s strategic plans remained unchanged but that specific tactics were always subject to change.
A Ukrainian counter-offensive has long been expected after months of attritional warfare in the east.
A Russian winter offensive failed to make much progress and its troops have been bogged down in a series of battles where any advances are incremental and come at a huge cost.
The Ukrainian defenders have also taken heavy casualties.
Syrskyi said Russia was sending in special forces and airborne units to help their attack on Bakhmut as members of Russia’s private mercenary Wagner group were exhausted.
Wagner mercenaries have spearheaded the assault on Bakhmut which has left it largely in ruins.
Reuters could not verify the battlefield accounts.
Ukraine’s general staff said Russian forces had made unsuccessful advances on areas west of Bakhmut and at least 10 towns and villages had come under Russian shelling.
Control of Bakhmut could allow Russia to directly target Ukrainian defensive lines in Chasiv Yar in the east and open the way for its forces to advance on two bigger cities in the Donetsk region – Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
While Ukraine has said it wants to inflict as many casualties as possible on the Russian forces as its prepares its own counteroffensive, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week acknowledged that if troops risked being encircled they could be pulled back.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said Russian forces controlled the centre of Bakhmut, with much of their assault now focusing on the railway station.
“There is heavy fighting in the city centre and the enemy is gradually moving toward the western outskirts,” Zhdanov said.
In other action, Russia’s defence ministry said its forces destroyed a depot with 70,000 tonnes of fuel near Zaporizhzhia.
They destroyed Ukrainian army warehouses storing missiles, ammunition and artillery in the regions of Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk, the ministry said.
Ukraine also reported widespread Russian shelling in northern regions.
Officials in the south said Russian aircraft had used guided bombs against towns in the Kherson region.
Reuters
