Ukrainian forces appear to be edging closer to the fiercely contested eastern city of Bakhmut amid claims of heavy fighting to the south and west.
Three months after Russia claimed victory in a months-long and bloody battle for the devastated city, Ukraine’s troops were reported to have taken the village of Andriivka this week and to be advancing around the village of Klishchiivka, some 6.5km to the south, occupying important high ground and forests nearby.
Ukraine is attempting a partial encirclement of Bakhmut, pushing from the north and south to threaten Russian forces within.
A senior Ukrainian official said every available weapons system was being used in the battles, including recently supplied US cluster munitions.
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The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think-tank, described the claimed Ukrainian gains as “tactically significant” and some Russian military bloggers appeared to confirm Ukraine’s progress.
The advance, if confirmed, would bring Ukraine’s forces closer to the important T053 highway, the north-south route that runs through the city.
“The enemy managed to occupy [Klishchiivka’s] adjacent heights from where he deployed fire from anti-tank systems and sniper groups to support their advancing infantry and equipment,” one Russian military blogger reported. “Heavy battles have been going on for several days and enemy reconnaissance and strike drones have an important influence on the development of the situation.”
Andriy Kovaliov, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian armed forces general staff, said troops had advanced in the direction of the village of Staromayorske, in the Donetsk region, near settlements recaptured by Ukraine last month.
The Ukrainian troops were reinforcing the positions they had taken and Russian forces were mounting strong resistance, he said.
Around Andriivka, which had been used as a logistics hub by Russian forces, Russia deployed tanks and armoured vehicles to attempt to clear the tree line of Ukrainian forces, but apparently without sufficient infantry support, leading to significant losses of vehicles targeted by drones. There were claims of a Russian withdrawal from the settlement.
The continuing fighting for Bakhmut, where there has been continuous combat since early last summer, has underlined Russia’s fragile hold on the city and surrounding countryside since it emerged as an objective as its advance towards the eastern cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk faltered.
Throwing large numbers of troops into the fighting, spearheaded by forces from the private Wagner paramilitary, Moscow claimed a tentative victory in May after taking heavy losses in the efforts to take Bakhmut, with Ukrainian officials saying their tactics of defence had been designed to wear down Russian forces.
Russia has intensified its attacks farther north in the area of Kreminna and Lyman, which analysts believe may be designed to relieve pressure to the south by drawing troops to that sector.
Since Kyiv launched its counteroffensive across the country this summer, officials have insisted they have been advancing carefully to limit Ukrainian casualties. The deputy defence minister Hanna Malyar claimed earlier this week that Russian forces were sustaining losses at a significantly higher rate in the eastern battles. This may be explained by the heavy use of US-supplied cluster munitions in the recent fighting as Russia initially attempted to bring forward reserves.
The slow pace of Ukraine’s gains eight weeks into its counteroffensive has prompted some scepticism over whether Kyiv will be able to achieve a breakthrough as it has confronted Russia’s well-prepared defences, including barrier minefieldsthat are 10 miles deep in places.
Since the decision by Washington to agree to supply Ukraine with cluster munitions – despite them being banned by a majority of countries – Ukraine has begun using the weapons more heavily against Russia’s defensive positions.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he would tolerate no corruption or treachery in affairs of state while his country is struggling to find the means to defend itself against Russian invaders.
Mr Zelenskiy made anti-corruption appeals in his nightly video address as two landmark cases came to light – the arrests of a military recruitment official accused of mass embezzlement and of a parliamentarian accused of collaborating with Russia.
The president last month announced plans to audit military draft offices to try to eliminate corruption.
That measure was part of long-standing policy to clean up the military and government departments to show Ukraine’s western supporters he was serious about tackling deep-rooted graft, measures that are a main element in the long process of securing European Union membership.
Ordinary Ukrainians who support the war effort were enraged by corrupt practices, Mr Zelenskiy said.
“Let me warn all members of parliament, officials and everyone working as a civil servant,” he said. “When you spend days on end looking for weapons for the country, when everyone’s attention is fixed on whether there is artillery, missiles and drones, you feel the moral strength our soldiers have given Ukraine.
“No one will forgive members of parliament, judges, military officials or any other officials for placing themselves in opposition to the state.”
Mr Zelenskiy, addressing members of parliament, said he would no longer tolerate those who “because of some sort of personal gain” refuse to back legislation needed for Ukraine to begin its long campaign to secure EU membership.
“I no longer want to see any such refusals,” he said. “No one wants to see that. Ukraine has no more time for that.”
Earlier, legal authorities said Yevhen Borysov, the head of a military recruitment centre in southern Ukraine accused of corruption and embezzlement, had been ordered held in pretrial detention, with bail set at the equivalent of just over €3.6 million.
The prosecutor general’s office said parliamentarian Oleksandr Ponomaryov, suspected of collaborating with Russia in the occupied southeast, had been arrested pending trial on treason charges.
Elsewhere, Russia’s parliament has voted to raise the maximum age at which men can be conscripted to 30 from 27, increasing the number of young men liable for a year of compulsory military service.
The Bill comes as Moscow seeks to replenish its forces on the frontline in Ukraine without resorting to another mobilisation – a step the Kremlin took last September which proved unpopular.
“From January 1st, 2024, citizens aged 18 to 30 will be called up for military service,” the lower house of parliament said after the bill was passed in a second and third reading.
The law also prohibits conscripts from leaving the country once the enlistment office has sent them their draft notice.
The bill still has to be approved by the upper chamber and signed into law by President Vladimir Putin, steps that are considered a formality.
The Kremlin said it was impossible for Russia to return to the Black Sea grain export deal for now, as an agreement related to Russian interests was “not being implemented”. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters, however, that Mr Putin had made it clear the deal could be revived if its Russia-focused part was honoured.
Interfax in Russia is reporting that overnight Russian armed forces claim to have struck at a Ukrainian fuel warehouse and training centre in Donetsk.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that “during the night and morning of July 26th, the Russian army shelled six communities of Sumy oblast” – Agencies