Ukraine Inches Towards Russian Stronghold as Counteroffensive Pushes On

Ukrainian forces are forging ahead with counteroffensive operations in the direction of the Russian-held southern Ukrainian city of Melitopol, according to Kyiv.

Ukrainian fighters "continue offensive operations" in the Melitopol and Berdyansk directions, two cities in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine which have been under Russian control since the early days of full-scale war.

Kyiv's troops have had "partial success" over the past 24 hours, Ukraine's deputy defense minister, Hanna Maliar, wrote on Telegram on Wednesday. "They consolidated at the achieved boundaries and leveled the front line," she said.

Ukraine's fighters made gains in several Zaporizhzhia settlements, including Novodanilivka, Mala Tokmachka and Vilne Pole, Ukraine's General Staff spokesperson Andriy Kovalev said on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Russia's Defense Ministry said Ukraine was focusing its counteroffensive efforts on Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk, adding that since June 4, Kyiv had "made 263 attacks" on Russian positions.

"All of them were repulsed," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.

In previous days, Ukraine has said it has recaptured eight settlements in the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions, both of which Moscow has said it has annexed. This is not recognized by the international community.

Melitopol is located deep in Russian-controlled territory in south Zaporizhzhia, although Ukrainian partisan warfare has been reported around the city, according to an analysis produced by the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank. Nearly two-thirds of Melitopol's residents had left the city by October 2022, its exiled mayor, Ivan Fedorov, said in an essay for Newsweek at the time. The major city had a pre-war population of 150,000.

In mid-April, the British Defense Ministry said Moscow had been constructing "extensive linear defenses" in Zaporizhzhia in anticipation of Kyiv's looming counteroffensive.

"Russia has probably put significant effort into these defensive works because it is convinced Ukraine is considering an assault towards the city of Melitopol," the government department said.

However, it is still very early to say whether Ukrainian forces will reach Melitopol or Berdyansk, Frederik Mertens, an analyst with the Hague Center for Strategic Studies, said on Wednesday.

"If either of these would be captured, this would be a great Ukrainian victory as it would cut off the land bridge to Crimea," he told Newsweek. But Ukraine should keep launching operations in as many different areas of the front line as possible to give them more flexibility, he added.

Russian-backed authorities in Melitopol made the city the de-facto regional capital in early March of 2023, rather than the city of Zaporizhzhia that has served as the administrative hub for the area. The move was a "tacit acknowledgement" that Russia was unlikely to take over the city of Zaporizhzhia, the British Defense Ministry said at the time.

Ukraine's counteroffensive, now thought to be in its third week, has focused on the southern and eastern front lines with Russia. On Tuesday, the ISW said Ukraine had carried out operations on "at least two sectors" of the front that day.

"Intense fighting continues in sectors of southern Ukraine," the British Defense Ministry, which posts daily intelligence updates on the war, wrote on Wednesday.

However, experts say Ukraine is yet to start the main thrust of its counteroffensive, which is still in its initial probing and reconnaissance phase.

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

Update 06/21/23 at 9 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comments from Frederik Mertens.