South facade
According to official military sources on the southern front:
Russian forces launched a counterattack on the outskirts of the Vrimevsky perimeter. Compounds of the 127th Division advanced towards what was left with the Zaporizhia area.
According to the experts, “this front will be at the center of a major turning point in the Russian-Ukrainian war”, because the Russian camp sees in it “a stage to fully secure the southern regions”, while the Ukrainian camp sees in it “a Moscow’s move to blackmail the West through the nuclear power plant and endanger it.” And that was during an interview with two pundits for “Sky News Arabia.”
Flaming hub
The southern axis is currently experiencing the greatest concentration of Kiev’s forces in its counterattack. Over the past few days, Ukraine has launched dozens of organized attacks.
These attacks were aimed at attempting to break through Russian fortifications near southern provinces, including Kherson, Zaporizhia and Donetsk.
In this regard, the director of the Moscow-based Center for GCM Studies, Asef Melhem, told Sky News Arabia:
“The nature of the Zaporizhia region is somewhat different from the rest of the battle fronts, as it features a series of low elevations, towering over the entire front line.” “These heights are controlled by Russia, which gives them an advantage by exposing the entire battle line and the Sea of Azov.” “Most of the Ukrainian counterattacks in this area relied on penetrating rivers and waterways, taking advantage of the thick fog, but most of them failed due to Russian control of the heights.” “The Russian counterattack has come at the present time to regain control of a small number of heights under Ukrainian control, to ensure that there is no breakthrough as a result of the counterattacks from Kiev.”
On the ground, the Russian Defense Ministry said: “His forces in the axis of Zaporizhia targeted units of the 65th Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Forces, and the total losses of the Ukrainian forces amounted to about 250 militants, and the D-30 howitzer was destroyed.”
Why the south?
To answer this question, Mykola Beliskov, a researcher at the Ukrainian National Institute for Strategic Studies, argues that the south is “the foundation of Russia’s war against Ukraine”.
And he explains in statements to “Sky News Arabia”:
“The reason is that Moscow wants to secure the process of annexation of the five regions, what is happening now and what we are observing. The importance of Zaporizhia lies not only in the energy it produces, but in its very important strategic location.” “The Russian pressure in the axis of Bakhmut in the east has decreased, allowing the Ukrainian forces to advance in the last hours in this place, unlike what happens in the south after the large fortifications Russians.”
The researcher at the Ukrainian National Institute for Strategic Studies refuted Russia’s interest in the southern axis for several reasons, the most important of which are:
Secure the neighborhood of Crimea and secure access to water Control the economic axis of Ukraine because of the wealth it conceals in the south Control the entire Black Sea and block the maritime outlets of Ukraine
nuclear power plant danger
The Zaporizhya power plant has been bombed several times and its connection to the electricity grid has been cut 7 times since the Russian army took control of it in March 2022.
In this regard, Beliskov states:
“The power plant is essentially an obstacle to Kyiv’s advance in the southern part, to keep the nuclear power plant as safe as possible.” “The nuclear plant itself is on the side under Russian control, and the city of Zaporizhya is on the other side, on the Ukrainian side, and that’s why the Ukrainians did not come forward, to keep this nuclear plant as safe as possible.” “The power plant is a tool of pressure on the international community entirely in the hands of Russia, and this is also happening now in terms of progress in Zaporizhia and the attempt to start fighting in this region and around the nuclear power plant.”
It should be noted that the International Atomic Energy Agency on Sunday reiterated its request “for access to the site where the water level is measured in the reservoir of the Kakhovka dam, used to cool the reactors of the nuclear power plant of Zaporizhia”.
“Its experts who are permanently present at the plant need access to a site near the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, to clarify the reason for the significant discrepancy observed between the different measurements,” the UN body said in a statement. a statement.
The destruction of the Kakhovka dam on the Dnipro last week caused flooding in towns adjacent to the river and raised concerns about the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia, 150 km from the dam.
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