News of the successful attacks was announced by the Ukrayinska Pravda website, which cited Ukraine’s Operational Command South.
Ukrayinska Pravda said: “The Armed Forces of Ukraine have destroyed four Russian ammunition depots in the Henichesk, Kherson, Kahovka and Beryslav districts of Kherson Oblast.”
The website added: “The Ukrainian Armed Forces killed 36 Russian soldiers and destroyed three Russian tanks, three Msta-B howitzers, a Zoopark-1 radar station, four armoured vehicles and seven other vehicles.”
Moreover, “Ukrainian aircraft conducted seven airstrikes on Russian forces: four of them on Russian strongholds and three on concentrations of Russian military personnel and equipment,” according to Ukrayinska Pravda.
Russia to focus on advancing towards Bakhmut?
Meanwhile, Russian forces in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region may be concentrating on an advance towards the city of Bakhmut, the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has said.
In its latest analysis of the war in Ukraine, published on Thursday night, the think tank wrote: “The Russian grouping in Donetsk Oblast is likely seeking to capitalise on recent marginal gains southeast of Bakhmut by continuing to attempt to advance in that area.”
The US experts added: “Russian forces may be de-emphasising attempts to take Siversk in order to concentrate on Bakhmut, but it is too soon to tell.”
The ISW further noted: “Russian forces continued efforts to advance northward on Bakhmut from recently gained positions around Novoluhanske and the Vuhlehirska Power Plant while pursuing southwestward advances along the T1302 highway from recently captured positions in Berestove.”
The think tank also said that Russian forces "have been struggling to make concrete gains around Siversk and have not made any confirmed advances toward the city since the capture of the Luhansk Oblast Administrative border in early July."
Therefore, Russian troops are likely “seeking to maintain momentum around Bakhmut, potentially at the expense of continued pressure on Siversk,” according to the US analysts.
Russia ‘unlikely to take Bakhmut’
However, “Russian forces remain unlikely to take Bakhmut itself, despite recent incremental advances in its direction,” the ISW predicted.
Elsewhere in the Donetsk Oblast, “Russian forces may be intensifying offensive operations around Avdiivka to reduce Ukrainian strikes in and around Donetsk City,” the US experts said.
North & South
Meanwhile, Russian forces “may be setting conditions for renewed offensive operations toward Kharkiv City” in northeastern Ukraine, according to the ISW.
The think tank added that Russian troops “attempted a limited ground offensive on the Southern Axis but are likely facing territorial losses in Kherson Oblast.”
Moreover, following Ukraine’s attacks using American rockets known as the HIMARS, “Russian forces are attempting to preserve their ground lines of communication over the Dnipro River connecting Kherson City to rear areas in eastern Kherson Oblast,” the US experts wrote.
Russia aims to consolidate power over occupied parts of Ukraine
In Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, “the Kremlin is continuing to institutionalise its occupation administrations” to prepare for “sham referenda, annexation, and integration into Russia,’ the ISW said.
The think tank added: “Russian occupation forces are continuing to pressure Ukrainian civilians in occupied areas to use Russian rubles and passports and to attend Russian-run schools, setting conditions for longer-term social control in occupied territories.”
Friday is day 156 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, pravda.com.ua, understandingwar.org