The assessment came in the ISW’s latest analysis of the war in Ukraine, published on Sunday night, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Ukraine making ‘verifiable progress’
“The Ukrainian counteroffensive is making verifiable progress in the south and the east,” the US experts wrote, adding: “Ukrainian forces are advancing along several axes in western Kherson Oblast and have secured territory across the Siverskyi Donets River in Donetsk Oblast.”
According to the US think tank, “The pace of the counteroffensive will likely change dramatically from day to day as Ukrainian forces work to starve the Russians of necessary supplies, disrupt their command and control, and weaken their morale even as counteroffensive ground assaults continue.”
The ISW predicted that “The Russians will occasionally counterattack and regain some lost ground and will of course conduct likely fierce artillery and air attacks against liberated settlements and advancing Ukrainian troops.”
It noted that “Ukrainian forces have made substantial enough progress to begin evoking more realistic commentary from the Russian milbloggers, who had been hewing very closely to the Kremlin’s optimistic rhetoric until today.”
Ukraine liberated three settlements: Zelensky
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky “announced that Ukrainian forces liberated two unnamed settlements in southern Ukraine and one settlement in Donetsk Oblast on September 4,” the US experts reported.
Zelensky added that the Ukrainian 54th Mechanised Brigade also “advanced in the direction of Lysychansk-Siversk” and established positions on unspecified heights, according to the ISW.
Moreover, Ukrainian officials shared geolocated footage showing “Ukrainian forces raising a Ukrainian flag on a hospital building in Vysokopillya, south of the Kherson-Dnipropetrovsk Oblast administrative border,” the US experts noted.
They added that social media sources confirmed that “Ukrainian forces crossed the Siverskyi Donets River and liberated Ozerne, 20 km northwest of Siversk.”
Zaporizhzhia nuclear station disconnected again
The ISW further reported that “Geolocated footage from September 2-3 shows Russian forces firing MLRS (multiple-launch rocket system) rounds from positions on the grounds of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) within 1km of a nuclear reactor.”
The US experts also wrote that Russian opposition outlet The Insider’s footage showed Russian forces operating MLRS systems at the ZNPP, which “reaffirms ISW’s prior assessment that Russian forces have militarised the ZNPP.”
Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced on Saturday that the ZNPP “has been disconnected from the power grid for the second time in its operational history (the first instance occurred on August 25),” the ISW said.
According to the US think tank, the disconnection is “likely due to continued Russian false flag attacks and other military activities in and around the ZNPP.”
“Russian sources claimed the ZNPP has stopped providing energy to Ukraine,” the ISW added.
Monday is day 194 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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Source: PAP, understandingwar.org