South Front
File image.
Kiev forces sustained more human and material losses on June 29 while attempting to advance on several sectors as part of their counteroffensive.
Heavy fighting was reported near the Antonovsk Bridge In the Kherson sector. A new video from the sector showed a Russian strike with an Iskander tactical ballistic missile that targeted a gathering of Ukrainian troops under the bridge. 30 were reported killed and ten others were wounded in the strike.
Another video showed the destruction of two towed howitzers which Kiev forces were using to support the attack on the key bridge.
Kiev forces also attempted to advance in the Donetsk sector. The attack was however repelled. Video footage showed heavy Russian artillery strikes near the region’s center.
Meanwhile, the Russian Yug Group of Forces said that it had hit several targets in the Lisichansk, Soledaro-Artemovsk and Aleksandro-Kalinovsk directions. The air and artillery strikes targeted troops and equipment from the 92nd, 54th, 22nd mechanized brigades of the Kiev forces.
The group’s forces also repelled an attack by Ukraine’s 110th mechanized brigade in the area of the settlement of Krutaya Balka in the Avdeevsky direction. Moreover, the forces foiled an operation by a reconnaissance and sabotage group in the Pervomaisky area.
In addition, the artillery of the group destroyed three 120 mm mortars and two ammunition transport units of Kiev forces near Krasnogorovka and Belogorovka. A strike by a TOS-1A thermobaric rocket launcher also hit a gathering of Ukrainian troops in the outskirts of the city of Bakhmut.
The commander of the Chechen special force Akhmat, Apty Alaudinov, told Russia 1 TV on June 29 that Ukraine’s much-heralded counteroffensive has not been able to breach any of the Russian defensive lines, but Kiev keeps sending men to their deaths.
“The picture we see is that the enemy, having reached our first line of defense, can’t advance through it. We warned them about this. They realistically do not have the forces and resources, for all that they’ve built them up, to break through our three echelons,” Alaudinov said on the ‘60 Minutes’ evening news show.
“Let them waste [their people], as they planned, to the last Ukrainian. They only make things worse for themselves. The realistic result, I’ve always said, will be the same. We will definitely win this battle,” he added.
Faced with failure on the ground, Kiev forces launched an attack with British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles against the Russian-held city of Berdyansk. However, at least some of the missiles were intercepted by Russian air defenses.
Overall, Ukraine’s counteroffensive is clearly not going according to the plan. Political pressure from the West will however force Kiev to launch more attacks, even if this caused much more human and material losses.
