In its latest operational update, published on Facebook on Friday, Ukraine’s military command wrote: “In the Donetsk direction, the enemy is conducting an offensive operation in the Bakhmut and Avdiivka directions.”
It added that Russian forces are trying “to create favourable conditions for taking over Soledar and Bakhmut, to expand the controlled territory on the western outskirts of the city of Donetsk.”
Elsewhere in the Donetsk Oblast, fighting and shelling continued on the Kramatorsk front, the Ukrainian General Staff said.
Russian forces also "fired on numerous settlements" around the city of Slovyansk, it added.
Fighting on Kharkiv front
Outside of the eastern Donbas region, shelling continued on the Kharkiv front in the northeast of Ukraine.
“Russian forces used artillery of various calibres to fire on the areas in and around Kharkiv City, Borshchova, Korobochkyne, Velyki Prokhody, Ruski Tyshky, Staryi Saltiv, Pryshyb, Tsyrkuny, Mospanove, and Bezruky,” Ukraine’s military command reported.
Three grain ships depart from Chornomorsk
Also on Friday, the government in Kyiv announced that three ships carrying 57,000 tonnes of Ukrainian grain had set off in the morning from the Black Sea port of Chornomorsk.
The vessels were bound for Turkey, Britain and Ireland, officials said, according to Polish state news agency PAP.
Ukraine 'seizing strategic initiative': ISW
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported that Ukraine was "likely seizing the strategic initiative and forcing Russia to reallocate forces and reprioritize efforts in response to Ukrainian counteroffensive operations.”
In its latest analysis of the war in Ukraine, published on Thursday night, the US-based think tank said Russian forces were "increasingly transferring personnel and equipment to Kherson and western Zaporizhia Oblasts at the expense of their efforts to seize Slovyansk and Siversk, which they appear to have abandoned.”
The US experts added that Russia was also “redeploying military equipment – artillery and aviation in particular – to Crimea from elsewhere in Ukraine.”
“Russian forces have previously withdrawn from or suspended offensive operations on Kharkiv City and the southern axis to prioritise capturing Luhansk Oblast, but they did so on their own initiative based on the changing priorities of their commanders,” the ISW said.
It added: “Russian forces in this case appear to be responding to the Ukrainian counteroffensive threat in Kherson Oblast rather than deliberately choosing objectives on which to concentrate their efforts.”
Ukraine ‘shaping course of war for first time’
The US experts assessed that “Ukraine’s preparations for the counteroffensive in Kherson and the initial operations in that counteroffensive combined with the dramatic weakening of Russian forces generally appear to be allowing Ukraine to begin actively shaping the course of the war for the first time.”
The ISW also reported that Russian forces “attempted to advance northwest of Izyum,” while Ukrainian troops “conducted a series of localised counterattacks between Izyum and Slovyansk and regained positions in a number of settlements."
The US think tank said Russian forces “continued ground attacks northeast and south of Bakhmut” as well as “attempts to advance on Pisky” and “conducted a limited ground attack southwest of Donetsk City.”
Russian forces also “continued to transfer equipment and personnel" to Ukraine's northeastern Kherson region and the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia, according to the US analysts.
Russia’s plan for Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant
Meanwhile, the UK Ministry of Defence said that “Russia’s intentions regarding the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant remain unclear.”
It added that “the actions they have undertaken at the facility have likely undermined the security and safety of the plant’s normal operations.”
In their latest intelligence update, posted on Friday, the UK analysts said: “Russian forces are probably operating in the regions adjacent to the power station and have used artillery units based in these areas to target Ukrainian territory on the western bank of the Dnipro river.”
Moreover, Russian forces "have probably used the wider facility area, in particular the adjacent city of Enerhodar, to rest their forces, utilising the protected status of the nuclear power plant to reduce the risk to their equipment and personnel from overnight Ukrainian attacks,” the British Ministry of Defence said.
Friday is day 163 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, facebook.com/GeneralStaff.ua, pravda.com.ua, understandingwar.org