Russian forces are trying to claw more ground in the eastern industrial region of Donbas, preparing, according to Ukrainian and Western forces, a new major offensive.
By Susie Blann
kyiv, Ukraine, February 12 (AP) .— The russian forces they kept hitting the Ukrainian cities during the weekend in the middle of a disputed dispute to get more land in the east of the country. Moscow was having trouble launching its expected offensive large-scale in the regionaccording to the Ukrainian authorities.
One person was killed and another wounded on Sunday morning in attacks on Nikopol, a city in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, according to regional Governor Serhii Lysak. The shells damaged four residential buildings, a vocational school and a water treatment plant.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, one person was injured after three Russian S-300 missiles hit infrastructure facilities overnight, regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
Ukrainian forces also shot down five drones – four Shahed attack aircraft and one Orlan-19 reconnaissance model – over the partially occupied Zaporizhia and Donetsk regions on Saturday night, according to the Ukrainian military.
Russian forces are trying to claw at more ground in the industrial eastern region of Donbas, made up of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. Ukrainian and Western forces have warned that Russia could launch a major new offensive there to try to turn the tide of the conflict as the war approaches its one-year anniversary.
However, Ukrainian authorities said that Moscow was having trouble coming up with the offensive.
“They are having big problems with a big offensive,” Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, told Ukrainian television on Saturday night.
“They have started their offensive, they just don’t say they have, and our troops are repelling them very forcefully. The offensive they planned is already gradually underway. But [no es] the offense they had,” Danilov said.
A US-based think tank said pro-Kremlin military bloggers also question the ability to launch a major offensive in Ukraine. “They continue to appear demoralized by the Kremlin’s prospects for a major offensive,” the Institute for the Study of War said in its latest report.
Коротко про основні тези нової publ_katsії для «Української правди». Для тих, хто бажає дізнатися деталі, – посилання нижче 👇https://t.co/pV9fMaJVBu#росія #Україна #Захід #історія #міжнародна_спільнота pic.twitter.com/wfpPZauYeL
— Oleksiy Danilov (@OleksiyDanilov) February 11, 2023
The owner of the Russian private military contractor Wagner Group, which is actively involved in the fighting in Ukraine, said this week the war could rage for years.
In a video interview posted late Friday, Yevgeny Prigozhin said it could take anywhere from 18 months to two years to secure control of Donbas. He added that the war could drag on for up to three years if Moscow decides to capture more territory east of the Dnieper River.
The statements by Prigozhin, a millionaire close to the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and nicknamed “Putin’s chef” for his profitable contracts with the Kremlin, acknowledged the difficulties the Kremlin has encountered in the campaign, which he initially hoped to resolve in a matter of weeks when Russian troops invaded the Ukraine on February 24.
NEW: Ukrainian military officers and Russian pro-war nationalist voices are downplaying #Russia‘s ability to launch a sweeping large-scale offensive in #Donetsk Oblast in the current circumstances of the Russian Armed Forces.
latest w/ @criticalthreats: https://t.co/ZizwZqerDG pic.twitter.com/MVGV5Z1xfy
— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) February 12, 2023
Russia suffered a series of humiliating setbacks in the fall as the Ukrainian military launched successful counteroffensives to retake ground in the east and south.
Prigozhin said on Sunday that Wagner’s fighters have seized the settlement of Krasna Hora, north of Bakhmut, a strategic city around which fighting has focused in recent months.