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Real counteroffensive yet to begin – Ukrainian commander
The general in charge of Kiev’s ground forces has claimed that the assaults so far have only been “probing” missions
"Colonel General Aleksandr Sirsky, who commands Ukraine’s ground troops, told The Guardian on Friday that his forces have yet to launch the most serious thrust of their ongoing counteroffensive against Russian forces.
- However, with Ukrainian losses adding up, the consensus in Washington, Moscow, and Kiev, is that the offensive has not lived up to expectations.
“Our main force has not been engaged in fighting yet, and we are now searching, probing for weak places in the enemy defenses,” he continued. “Everything is still ahead.”
Sirsky acknowledged that fighting on the Donetsk sector of the front is “difficult” and “stressful.”
- Russian forces have mounted offensive operations to “seize the initiative” in this area, Sirsky said, backing up earlier reports by Ukrainian officials.
- Russia claims that Ukraine has lost more than 13,000 soldiers, either killed or wounded, since the counteroffensive began.
Former US Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter attributed the losses incurred by Ukraine’s best-equipped and best-trained brigade deployed so far, the 47th Mechanized Brigade, to overconfident assessments by NATO commanders and extensive preparation by Russian forces.
- Ukrainian President Vladimr Zelensky has admitted that progress has been “slower than desired,” while
- American and other Western officials have concluded that the Ukrainian military is “not meeting expectations on any front,” according to a CNN report on Thursday.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin attributed the offensive’s failure to manpower constraints, and declared on Wednesday that “the enemy has no chance” of achieving victory on the battlefield.
Speaking on state television on Thursday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said that Kiev will launch as many offensives “as is needed to expel Russia from our territory.”
- To that end, the Ukrainian government has expanded its mobilization efforts in recent days, issuing blanket call-up notices to all draftees in at least two regions."
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Ukrainian prime minister says counteroffensive will "take time" and calls for patience
From CNN's Yulia Kesaieva and Lindsay Isaac
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Ukraine's advance on Russia will "take time," the Ukrainian prime minister said, while expressing optimism for the counteroffensive.
Denys Shmyhal called on Ukrainians to be patient while speaking in London at the Ukraine Recovery Conference.
Denys Shmyhal called on Ukrainians to be patient while speaking in London at the Ukraine Recovery Conference.
- Shmyhal said there will be "results of the counteroffensive" but added that "Ukraine values the lives of its soldiers, so it does not plan to lead them mindlessly under fire," according to Ukrainian state media Ukrinform.
- More context: CNN reported earlier Thursday that the early phases of Ukraine’s counteroffensive is having less success and Russian forces are showing more competence than Western assessments expected, according to two Western officials and a senior US military official.
- Ukrainian forces will be able to make territorial gains over time. In addition, these officials note that Ukrainian forces have themselves been adapting to Russian tactics and defenses, including carrying out more dismounted operations. In recent days, Ukrainian forces have also had more success targeting and shooting down Russian aircraft.
CNN's Jim Sciutto contributed reporting to this post.
Zelensky prepares ground to delay presidential election
Kiev can’t organize a vote amid the ongoing fighting, its president has told the BBC
Ukraine will not be able to organize elections so long as martial law is in effect, President Vladimir Zelensky told the British state broadcaster in an interview on Friday. His original five-year term is set to expire in May 2024.
“In accordance with the law, elections need to happen in a time of peace, when there is no fighting,” Zelensky told the BBC when asked if there would be a presidential election next year.
- Ukrainian laws mandate a parliamentary election no later than October 29 this year.
- For that to actually happen, Kiev would need to end martial law so the 60-day campaign could begin by August 28, according to Rodion Miroshnik, former ambassador of the Lugansk People’s Republic in Moscow.
- Elections for president would need to happen by March 2024, Miroshnik told TASS.
Zelensky announced martial law on February 24, 2022, and has been extending it ever since. The most recent 90-day extension was announced on May 20 this year, and is due to expire on August 18.
While acknowledging that elections were not allowed under martial law, the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) urged Ukraine in May to “start preparing for [a vote] as soon as possible.”
“Although democracy is far more than only elections, I think we all agree that without the elections, democracy cannot properly function,” Martinus Josephus Maria ‘Tiny’ Kox told Ukrainian activist Olga Aivazovska on May 17.
“Although democracy is far more than only elections, I think we all agree that without the elections, democracy cannot properly function,” Martinus Josephus Maria ‘Tiny’ Kox told Ukrainian activist Olga Aivazovska on May 17.
Aleksey Danilov, head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, responded by saying that “there can be no elections” so long as martial law remains in effect.
- Under a law enacted in May 2022, Zelensky has banned a dozen political parties for allegedly challenging his official position on the conflict with Russia.
- The largest parliamentary opposition bloc, Opposition Platform – For Life, was outlawed last June, while the most recent ban, in February, applied to former president Viktor Yanukovich’s Party of Regions.
Western media and the war on truth in Ukraine
Deception is at the heart of all warfare.
2 years ago
“Additional military hardware can certainly be delivered, but [Ukraine’s] mobilization reserve is not unlimited,” Putin commented on Thursday. “And it seems Ukraine’s Western allies are indeed prepared to wage war to the last Ukrainian.”
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