The Ukrainian military said that Russia continues to focus its efforts on attacking cities in the Donetsk region of the Donbas region.
“The enemy continues to focus his main offensive efforts on the Lyman, Bakhmut and Marinka axis. More than 35 fighting took place during the day,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced on February 26.
According to the Ukrainian military, in the direction of Bakhmut, Russia carried out “unsuccessful attacks in the vicinity of Bohdanivka”.
“They carried out airstrikes in the Soledar and Bila Hora regions of Donetsk,” the Ukrainian General Staff confirmed.
The Ukrainian military claimed that, in the direction of Marinka, Russia carried out unsuccessful attacks and “air strikes near Krasnohorivka”.
In the regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, Russian forces are on the defensive and focusing their main efforts on “preventing the advance of the Ukrainian army,” the Ukrainian Armed Forces said.
“The threat of missile strikes and air strikes across Ukraine remains high,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said, confirming that Russian forces had carried out 36 air strikes. raids and 17 attacks from multiple rocket launchers on June 26.
On the same day, Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said that Russia’s main motivation now is to retain the territories it already controls.
“The drive to ‘not lose’ controlled territories is much stronger than the drive to gain more new territories… Psychologically, it is easier for them to accept an unsuccessful attack. is losing the territories it has controlled. This causes them to lose morale and irreparably lose motivation,” Ms. Maliar emphasized.
“Russia’s task now is to stop our counterattack at any cost. By blowing up dams, mines, continuous shelling, sabotage, information campaigns, even nuclear threat,” the Ukrainian defense official added.
Maliar acknowledged that this is a difficult time for the Ukrainian military to continue to counterattack.
“Our army is really in trouble. It’s very difficult. But they are still moving forward. In a steady way. Because we are fighting a righteous war. And this is strength. ours,” said Maliar.
Earlier, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister announced that the country’s military forces had regained control of Rivnopil, a southeastern settlement in Donetsk.
In a video posted by the press center of the Tavria Defense Forces on June 26, a Ukrainian soldier said, “Soldiers of the 2nd Mechanized Battalion of the 31st Mechanized Brigade liberated the village of Rivnopil and Ukraine are moving forward.”
Last week, spokesman for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Andriy Kovalov confirmed that Ukrainian forces had partially successfully advanced in the Rivnopil-Staromaiorske direction and were “entrenched in the border areas that have already been established.” controllable”.
Andrey Kartapolov, Chairman of the Defense Committee of the Russian State Duma (lower house), said on June 26 that the counterattack of Ukrainian forces did not go as planned due to heavy losses.
