The Russian military has launched a “local offensive” near the southern Ukrainian town of Orekhiv, where the front has been virtually frozen for several months, an official with the local Russian occupation administration said on Thursday.
“Our troops launched a local offensive near the town of Orekhiv, which is still temporarily occupied by Ukrainian fighters,” said Vladimir Rogov, a Russian occupation cadre in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.
The Ukrainians do not mention these operations at this stage.
According to him, this attack forced the Ukrainian forces to withdraw slightly to occupy reserve positions. “Our troops are occupying the occupied positions. The territory of the Zaporizhia region liberated from Ukrainian fighters is gradually increasing,” he was quoted as saying by the Russian news agency Ria Novosti.
The front in southern Ukraine has largely frozen over since the Russians withdrew from the city of Kherson in early November and the onset of winter. The Zaporizhzhia region is partially controlled by Moscow, but not by its eponymous regional capital. The Ukrainian military, for its part, did not mention Orekhiv in its daily briefing on Thursday morning.
Russian troops have been operating in parallel for two weeks in a push to the east, where most of the fighting is taking place, taking much of the town of Soledar and its salt mines. Heavy fighting is also continuing in the neighboring town of Bakhmout, which the Russians have been trying to seize since the summer.
Source: BFM TV
