Ukraine claims its troops are taking the initiative, attacking in all directions, and says Russia is withdrawing its forces from the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.
Ukraine advances in all directions
“If we talk about the entire front line both east and south, we have taken the strategic initiative and are attacking in all directions,” Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar told the media on June 30. .
Maliar said Ukrainian troops were moving “confidently” on either side around the eastern city of Bakhmut, and fighting was raging around the city.
“On the southern front, we achieved a lot of success, sometimes advancing more than 1km in a few days, sometimes less than 1km, sometimes about 2km,” the Ukrainian defense ministry official said.
She also emphasized that the effectiveness of Ukraine’s current counter-offensive campaign should be evaluated based on many different factors, not only by the speed of the attack or the area of territory recaptured.
“Therefore, we are doing all these missions and only the military can make an accurate assessment. According to the current assessment, everything is going according to plan,” Ms. Maliar said.
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged that the speed of the army’s counterattack was slower than expected, but Kiev would not be under pressure to speed up the counterattack from either side.
Ukrainian officials also say that the most important phase of the counter-offensive has yet to come. Ukraine has so far not launched the most elite reserve force to counterattack.
Russia withdraws troops from Zaporizhia factory
Reuters quoted information from Ukraine’s military intelligence agency on June 30, saying that Russia is gradually withdrawing its forces from the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in the Zaporizhia province, southern Ukraine.
“According to the latest data, Russian forces are gradually withdrawing from the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant,” the Defense Ministry’s Intelligence Directorate (GUR) said on the Telegram messaging app.
GUR said that the first group to leave the plant were three employees of Russia’s state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom. Ukrainian employees contracted with Rosatom are also advised to leave before July 5 and go to Crimea.
In addition, the patrol force of the Russian army is also gradually reducing its presence in the area of the factory and the neighboring city of Enerhodar.
Moscow has not yet commented on the information.
Zaporizhia is Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and was controlled by Russia not long after it launched a special military operation in Ukraine in February last year. International leaders have repeatedly warned of a nuclear crisis in Ukraine due to the constant shelling of each other around the plant.
This month, Kiev said that Moscow was planning a “terrorist attack” on the plant site, which involved the release of radiation. However, Russia has denied this allegation.
