Russia says Ukraine is carrying out major attacks. Kyiv accuses Moscow of misleading

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian forces are making great efforts to breach Russian defensive lines in southeastern Ukraine for a second day, an official in Moscow said Monday, as Russia’s defense ministry said it had illegally thwarted an attack. annexed territory of the occupied country.

Kiev authorities have suggested that reports of the attack were a Russian disinformation hoax as the Ukrainian military prepares for a widely expected counter-attack after more than 15 months of war..

Fighting resumed on its border with the eastern province of Donetsk on Monday after Russian defenses repulsed a Ukrainian advance the day before, said Vladimir Rogov, an official in the Russia-backed administration of Ukraine’s partially occupied Zaporizhia region.

“The enemy has thrown more force into the attack than it was yesterday (Sunday),” said Rogov, and the new attempt to break through the front line was “wider in scope and organized,” adding: “There is a battle going on.”

Rogov interpreted the Ukrainian military moves as part of an effort to reach the coast of the Sea of ​​Azov and cut off the land corridor to Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

Analysts have long considered this strategy likely because it would cut Russian forces in two and severely squeeze supplies to Crimea, which has served as a major Russian military outpost in the war that began on February 24, 2022.

Rogov’s comments came after Moscow also claimed to have thwarted major Ukrainian attacks in Donetsk provincenear its border with Zaporizhia Oblast.

Unconfirmed reports fueled speculation that a major Ukrainian ground operation may be under way as part of the expected counter-offensive.

Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said she did not differentiate between the phases of the war, insisting that Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion “contains everything, including offensive countermeasures”. But she acknowledged that Kiev’s forces “in some areas … are switching to offensive operations.”

Retired British General Richard Barrons, co-chair of UK-based strategic advisory firm Universal Defense & Security Solutions, said Ukraine was “clearly in the initial phase” of its planned counter-offensive.

“The focus will be on tanks, artillery and infantry – that’s the tip of the spear most obvious,” he told the Associated Press, noting that the counterattack would also include politics, diplomacy, information and electronic warfare.

Ukraine often waits until the end of its military operations to confirm its actions, forcing a media blackout in the meantime.

A video released by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry showed soldiers putting their finger to their lips in a sign of secrecy. “Plans love silence,” he said onscreen. “There will be no announcement of the beginning.”

Zaporizhia and Donetsk are two of the four provinces that President Vladimir Putin declared Russian territory last fall and are partly controlled by Moscow.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had repulsed a “large-scale” attack on Sunday in five places in the Donetsk region. The announcement could not be independently verified, and no specific assaults were confirmed by Ukrainian officials.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed in an extraordinary overnight video that 250 Ukrainian personnel were killed in the fighting in Donetsk Province, and 16 Ukrainian tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles and 21 armored fighting vehicles were destroyed.

“The enemy’s goal was to break through our defenses in the most vulnerable, in his opinion, sector of the front,” Konashenkov said. The enemy has not accomplished its tasks. Did not succeed “.

The Russian ministry said the alleged attack began on Sunday morning but waited until early Monday to announce it.

In response, the Center for Strategic Communication of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Telegram that Russian forces are “intensifying their information and psychological operations”.

“In order to demoralize Ukrainians and mislead society (including their own population), Russian propagandists will spread false information about the counterattack, its directions and the losses of the Ukrainian army. Even if there was no counterattack,” a statement on Telegram read.

Ukrainian officials have said for months that a spring campaign with advanced weaponry provided by Western allies has been planned to recapture territories captured by Russia during the war, but have kept silent about when, how and where it might start, or if it has already begun. .

Recent military activity, including drone attacks on Moscowcross-border raids In Russia, sabotage and drone attacks on infrastructure behind Russian lines have Russians worried. Analysts say these measures could mark the beginning of a counterattack.

In another disruption, television and radio broadcasts in several regions of Russia were hacked on Monday, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. A fake broadcast showed a voice impersonating Putin and stated that Ukrainian forces had invaded the Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions of Russia.

These Russian regions were occasionally targeted by cross-border strikes during the war.

Peskov said, in statements reported by Russian news agencies, that the impersonator announced the declaration of martial law in those areas, where people were urged to evacuate, and all Russians eligible for military service were mobilized.

Today, Monday, the Russian army said it had repelled the latest Ukrainian incursion into the Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine. The Russians who claim to be fighting Together with the ukrainian forces said they attacked on sunday. The Russian Defense Ministry said air strikes and artillery fire pushed them back.

At least two factors were at play in the timing: better ground conditions for troop and equipment movements after the winter, and the deployment of more advanced Western weaponry and the training of Ukrainian forces in their use.

Ukraine’s Western allies have sent the country more than 65 billion euros ($70 billion) in military aid to help defend it. Evicting the Kremlin’s forces is an enormous challenge for Kiev planners. Russia built extensive lines of defense, including trenches, minefields, and anti-tank obstacles.

Analysts say Ukraine could fire simultaneous volleys in different areas of the front line, which stretches for about 1,100 kilometers (nearly 700 miles).

A spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry said that Ukraine used six mechanized battalions and two tank battalions in the Donetsk attacks. The ministry released a video it said showed the destruction of some equipment in a field.

In the ruined eastern city of Bakhmut, scene of the longest and bloodiest battle, Ukrainian forces reportedly regained ground. Deputy Defense Minister Malyar said that Ukrainian forces were advancing and “taking domination of the heights” around Bakhmut.

The leader of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin — a frequent critic of his country’s military officers whose claims sometimes cannot be trusted — said Russian forces had lost control of part of the village of Berkovka outside Bakhmut. Last month, Prizozhin claimed his forces had captured the entire city of Bakhmut, with Ukrainian forces still in control of many of the surrounding areas.

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