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Ukraine Situation Report: Counteroffensive Slowed by 77,000 Square Miles of Mines
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Regardless of what happens with his counteroffensive, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the war is “not a Hollywood movie” and that Ukraine won’t negotiate with Russia until its forces have left his nation’s sovereign territory.
“No matter how far we advance in our counter-offensive, we will not agree to a frozen conflict because that is war, that is a prospectless development for Ukraine,” Zelensky told the BBC Wednesday. “Some people believe this is a Hollywood movie and expect results now. It’s not.”
Zelensky says in BBC interview that the counteroffensive’s progress has been “slower than desired” but will continue and at Ukraine’s chosen pace.
“Some people believe this is a Hollywood movie and expect results now. It's not.” https://t.co/WT7v8vTEdZ
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) June 21, 2023
Zelensky added that while Ukraine has liberated eight villages so far, the counteroffensive was not going easily because 200,000 sq km (77,220 sq miles) of Ukrainian territory had been mined by Russian forces.
“Whatever some might want, including attempts to pressure us, with all due respect, we will advance on the battlefield the way we deem best,” Zelensky told BBC.
Ukrainian forces have made most of its progress in the southern section of the roughly 200 mile front that runs from northern Donetsk Oblast to central Zarporizhzhia Oblast, Kyiv’s deputy defense minister said Wednesday.
Here are today's control-of-terrain maps of #Russia's invasion of #Ukraine from @TheStudyofWar and @criticalthreats.
Interactive map, updated daily: https://t.co/hwgxTnU2Tr
Archive of time-lapse maps, updated monthly: https://t.co/IT6FiqwgGO pic.twitter.com/e9VCLNsq3M
— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) June 21, 2023
“The defense forces of Ukraine continue to conduct offensive actions in the Melitopol and Berdyansk directions,” Hanna Maliar said on her Telegram channel. “During the past day, they had partial success, they consolidated at the achieved boundaries and leveled the front line.”
In the east, “our defenders continue to restrain the large-scale offensive of Russian troops in the Lyman and Bakhmut directions,” she said. “Particularly heavy fighting continues in the Lyman direction in the Yampolivka and Serebryansk forestry districts of the Donetsk region. In the direction of Bilogorivka-Shypylivka, our troops conducted offensive actions and had partial success. Now they are fixed at the achieved boundaries.”
The bottom line, however, is that Ukrainian forces “gradually advance step by step,” she told Ukrainian media, according to CNN. “So one can say we are gnawing our way meter by meter.”
And she again repeated the now-familiar theme that “the main strike is still ahead.”
Take note Mordor; you ain't seen nothing yet. #Ukraine's main counteroffensive strike "is still ahead," Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Maliar said today. Adding Ukrainian forces "are gnawing our way meter by meter" to advance. https://t.co/ISrC3qlQf1 pic.twitter.com/sBvRRaK9i2
— Glasnost Gone (@GlasnostGone) June 21, 2023
The Kremlin-connected Rybar Telegram channel acknowledged small Ukrainian gains in Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
“Battles for the village of Pyatikhatki continued throughout the day in the Zaporizhzhia direction: at the moment, units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine control only a small part of the buildings in the north of the village.”
Ukraine has made advances toward the village of Pyatikhatki in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Russian sources claim. (Google Earth image)
Yevengy Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group who continues to spar with Russian military leadership, offered a much more alarming take.
Pyatikhatki, he said, “is controlled by Ukrainian forces, as is the northern part of Robotyne. Urozhaine is also under Ukrainian control. Big parts have been given up by Russian forces. One day we will wake up and find out Crimea is given away.”
Prigozhin with an update on the front lines:
"P'yatykhatky is controlled by
