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Vladimir Putin’s military command centers in Ukraine are being hit with “intensive long-range attacks” as his forces are being whittled down by a counter-attack, British defense chiefs said on Thursday.
They emphasize that Ukrainian troops are gaining ground in some areas of the front in the south of the country.
In its latest intelligence update, the Ministry of Defense in London said: “During 30-31 August 2022, the Armed Forces of Ukraine continued offensive operations in southern Ukraine, with the support of intensive long-range attacks against Russian command and logistics locations throughout the occupied zone.”
The conference added: “The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine also released video footage of Ukrainian aircraft operating high-speed anti-radiation missiles (HARMs). Russia has previously claimed to have recovered fragments of such weapons, which are designed to locate and destroy radars.
“Russia prioritizes robust ground-based air defenses – the radar coverage that enables this is a critical capability in its operations in Ukraine.
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“A substantial and sustained degradation of Russia’s radars with HARM would be a major setback for Russia’s already troubled situational awareness.”
Britain, the US, Ukraine and their allies are fighting an information war against Russia, so briefings should be treated with caution, although the Kremlin’s claims are often far less credible.
The Southern Ukraine Operational Command said its forces had destroyed a pontoon bridge near the town of Daryivky in the Kherson region, which had been used by Russian troops to carry equipment and ammunition.
The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces also reported early Thursday fighting near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and further along the front lines in the east and south.
Both sides have claimed battlefield successes amid Ukraine’s renewed push to regain territory in the south.
“It’s a very slow process, because we value people,” said Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, referring to the Ukrainian offensive.
“There will be no quick success.”
Russia captured large swathes of southern Ukraine near the Black Sea coast in the first weeks of the more than six-month war, including in the Kherson region, north of Russia’s annexed Crimean peninsula.
Elsewhere, Ukraine repelled Russian attacks in the direction of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, towns north of the Russian-held city of Donetsk, the general staff of its armed forces said.
Pro-Russian troops have been targeting Bakhmut in their push to extend control of the Donbas region, Ukraine’s industrial heartland to the east, the general staff added.
Russia has denied reports of Ukrainian progress and said its troops had defeated Ukrainian forces.
In the past 24 hours, five civilians in the Donetsk region were killed and 12 wounded, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on the Telegram messaging app.
Meanwhile, Russian troops were shelling the route of a United Nations mission seeking access to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Oleksandr Starukh, the head of the Zaporizhzhia region, said on Thursday.
Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency left the city of Zaporizhzhia to visit the Russian-held nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine to assess any damage, although both sides in the conflict reported fresh shelling in the nearby town of Enerhodar.
The head of the Ukrainian military administration in Nikopol across the Dnipro River from the Zaporizhzhia plant said earlier Russian forces were shelling near the plant in an attempt to give the IAEA the impression that Ukraine was attacking it.
Ukrainian assault troops were spotted by Russian forces near the nuclear power plant and are now trapped by the Russian air force, Vladimir Rogov, a local official stationed in Russia, said on Thursday.
Russia’s defense ministry also claimed there had been an attack on the nuclear power plant by up to 60 Ukrainian soldiers.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, was captured by Russian forces in March. It remains close to the front lines and has come under repeated bombing in recent weeks, raising fears of a nuclear disaster.