News of the attacks was announced by Ukraine’s operational Command “South” on Tuesday morning.
According to preliminary reports, there were no casualties. Officials were assessing the damage, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
'Mykolaiv district was struck by S-300 air defence system'
Ukraine’s Armed Forces said that “the Mykolaiv district was struck by an S-300 air defence system from the temporarily occupied Kherson region.”
The governor of the Mykolaiv Region, Vitaliy Kim, added on Telegram that Russian forces “attempted to destroy port infrastructure.”
He added: “Russian shells and shrapnel damaged a critical-infrastructure facility and a car company. According to preliminary reports, there were no casualties. Officials are investigating the details of the attack.”
'The enemy launched a missile attack on Odesa'
Meanwhile, in the Odesa region, Russian forces struck private buildings in coastal villages in the early hours of Tuesday, according to officials.
“The enemy launched a missile attack on Odesa,” said Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the Odesa regional administration, adding that the Russians had used strategic aircraft.
Bratchuk wrote on Telegram that a rescue operation was under way.
Ukraine’s Operational Command “South” reported: “In the Odesa region, Russia struck private buildings in coastal villages and a fire broke out. Rescue services are working on the ground. According to preliminary reports, there were no casualties.”
Ukraine hopes to resume grain exports this week
The port of Odesa is Ukraine’s biggest port. Ukraine hopes to resume exporting some of its grain through Odesa under last week’s deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey.
On Saturday, just hours after that agreement, Russian missiles struck the port, injuring several people.
On Monday, Ukraine said it would resume grain exports under the UN-led deal, despite the strike on Odesa.
The first grain-carrying vessels are expected to leave the port of Chernomorsk later this week, with the other two ports, Odesa and Pivdenny (Yuzhny), to be ready in two weeks’ time.
The deal to unblock Ukraine’s Black Sea ports is seen as a diplomatic breakthrough that would help ease the global food crisis fueled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Marginal territorial gains for Russia in Donbas
Meanwhile, Russian forces in eastern Ukraine were making marginal territorial gains, and their latest offensive is likely to stall before they are able to capture any of the bigger cities in the Donetsk region, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US think tank.
In its latest analysis of the war in Ukraine, published on Monday night, the US-based think tank said: “Russian forces made marginal territorial gains south of Bakhmut on July 25 but are largely suffering from the same fundamental limitations that previously prevented them from rapidly gaining substantial ground during offensive operations in Luhansk Oblast.”
Russians taking control of Vuhledar Power Plant
The US experts added that “social media footage from July 25 shows that troops of the Wagner Group Private Military Company (PMC) have advanced into Novoluhanske and Russian and Ukrainian sources noted that Russian forces are taking control of the territory of the Vuhledar Power Plant on the northern edge of Novoluhanske, likely as a result of a controlled Ukrainian withdrawal from the area.”
According to the ISW, “Russian Telegram channels began reporting on Russian attempts to advance on Novoluhanske as early as May 25, which means that Russian troops have been unsuccessfully attacking this single location for two months.”
Moreover, “Novoluhanske is neither a large settlement nor is it characterised by particularly challenging terrain, yet Russian forces have impaled themselves on it for weeks,” the US analysts pointed out.
In addition, “the capture of Novoluhanske and the Vuhledar Power Plant will not generate an advantageous salient along which Russian troops will be able to advance northwards towards Bakhmut,” according to the ISW.
Russians unable to use battlefield geometry
“The Russian seizure of Novoluhanske and the Vuhledar Power Plant … flattens the Ukrainian defensive line rather than perpetuating a salient, thereby limiting the advantage the occupation of those areas gives to the Russian forces,” the think tank wrote.
The US experts said that “the operations around Novoluhanske indicate that Russian forces are suffering the same limitations in terms of their ability to effectively use battlefield geometry (such as the creation of effective salients) to their advantage, which is exacerbated by the extreme difficulty Russian forces regularly have capturing small and relatively insignificant bits of terrain over weeks or months of fighting.”
The ISW predicted that "these limitations will grow as Russian units continually degrade themselves during assaults on small villages.”
It added: “Russian forces are unlikely to be able to effectively leverage the capture of Novoluhanske to take Bakhmut, and the continual tactical and operational limitations they are facing on the battlefield will likely contribute to the culmination of the offensive in Donbas before capturing Bakhmut, Slovyansk, or any other major city in Donetsk Oblast.”
Ukraine repels Russian attacks in Donetsk region
Meanwhile, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Tuesday reported that Ukrainian forces had repelled several Russian attacks in the Donetsk region.
In the Slovyansk direction, Ukrainian units have fended off Russian attacks and pushed the enemy back near Spirne and the National Nature Park "Svyati Hory," Ukraine’s military command said.
In the area of Bakhmut, Russian forces also incurred battlefield losses and were forced to retreat near Berestove and Semihirya, according to the Ukrainian General Staff.
However, “enemy units are trying to advance in the direction of Pokrovske, hostilities continue,” Ukraine’s military command added.
The Ukrainian General Staff also reported that Russian units were seeking to improve their tactical position ahead of an attack on the cities of Siversk and Soledar. They were restocking fuel and ammunition, Ukraine’s military command added.
It also reported that Russia had flown reconnaissance drones from Belarus into Ukraine’s northwestern Volyn Oblast.
Meanwhile, Russian forces continued to shell Ukrainian positions and settlements along the contact line in the eastern Donbas region, in the south of the country, as well as to the north and east of the northeastern Kharkiv City, the Ukrainian General Staff said, adding that air attacks also continued.
Meanwhile, in the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, Russian units were focusing their efforts on defending their positions, according to the Ukrainian General Staff.
Tuesday is day 153 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, understandingwar.org, facebook.com/GeneralStaff.ua
