Russia states on Monday, June 9 that they want to create a “damping zone” on Monday, June 9, launching an offensive in the Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk, an unprecedented advance after more than three years of war.
Questioned by the press, during its weekly informative session, about Russian advance in Dnipropetrovsk, located near the Russian border, and the possibility of creating a damping area, Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, replied: “Without a doubt, this is one of them,” reports Reuters, citing the Russian agency Tass.
Russia announced Sunday to attack the Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk, which limits those of Donetsk and Zaporijia already partially under Russian control. This is the first in addition to three years of conflict, at a time when peace negotiations are blocked.
This region, unlike Donetsk, Zaporijia, Lougansk, Kherson and Crimea, is not one of the Ukrainian territories that Russia has so far officially claimed.
The “Advance” troops, according to Moscow
This Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry ensures that its troops “continue to advance in the depths of the defense of the enemy” and control more territory in DNIPROPETROVSK, according to Russian state media, cited by Reuters.
The news agency indicates that you cannot verify this information independently.
“Who refuses to recognize the realities of war during negotiations will face new realities on the ground. Our Armed Forces have launched an offensive” in the Dnipropetrovsk region, former Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, the current number two of the Russian Security Council, said on Telegram.
A strategic value in the field for Russia?
This offensive, if verified, would constitute a significant setback for Ukrainian troops, in difficulties in the front due to lack of enough workforce and armaments.
The objective of this Russian impulse could be to reduce communication and supply Ukraine lines for its troops located in the Donetsk region, the Institute for the Study of War estimates, based in the United States.
Such Russian progress could also have a strategic value in the field, in the midst of a diplomatic discussion promoted by Washington for a conflict agreement, without current results.
However, according to Oleksiï Kopytko, a Ukrainian specialist in these questions, an advance in the Dnipropetrovsk region presents “many more risks than advantages for Russia”, due to its “impossibility of concentrating troops” in a sufficient number “for a breakthrough,” he told the France-Presste agency.
Kyiv assures that his troops “hold his sector”
On Sunday night, only the Ukrainian command of the Southern Defense Forces reacted to the announcement of Russian advance saying that “the enemy did not give up his intentions to enter the Dnipropetrovsk region,” in the center of the East, and by arguing that the Ukrainian soldiers “were holding their sector from the front.”
Still on Sunday, but earlier in the day, the authorities of the Dnipropetrovsk region had expressed a death in a Russian bombing in Mejova, 13 kilometers from the Donetsk region. Moscow also announced on Sunday the capture of Tsaria, a village in the Donetsk region.
Before the Russian offensive in February 2022, about three million people lived in the Dnipropetrovsk region, even around one million in its capital, Dnipro, which is regularly the objective of the mortal strikes of drones and missiles.
Many Ukrainians, who flee from the fights in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Lougansk, have also found refuge in this part of the Ukrainian territory.
Source: BFM TV
