The latest update was provided by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Thursday night, the RBC-Ukraine news agency reported.
Ukrainian troops “continue their offensive operation in the Melitopol direction,” in Zaporizhzhia, and “conduct offensive (assault) actions in the Bakhmut direction,” Ukraine’s military command said.
Ukrainian troops “are inflicting losses on the occupying forces in personnel and equipment and draining the enemy along the entire front line,” according to officials in Kyiv.
Ukraine’s National Guard is displacing Russian forces from their positions and consolidating its position on the achieved lines in the direction of the port of Melitopol, in Zaporizhzhia, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported.
A senior National Guard official, Mykola Urshalovych, told a media briefing on Thursday: "Despite dense mining and engineering equipment, as well as powerful resistance from the occupiers, our units had partial success, advancing both into the depths of the enemy's defenses and along the front.”
Moreover, Ukrainian armoured vehicles are operating beyond the final line of the Russian defensive layer that Ukrainian forces in the western part of Zaporizhia are currently penetrating, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
According to geolocated footage published on September 20 and 21, Ukrainian forces also advanced west and southwest of the village of Verbove in Zaporizhzhia province, the US think tank reported on Thursday night.
In the course of Thursday, Ukraine’s air force launched an attack on a Russian command post and conducted 10 strikes on concentrations of Russian personnel, weapons and military equipment, RBC-Ukraine reported.
Ukraine’s missile troops also targeted the Russian command post, a concentration of Russian personnel, weapons and military equipment, as well as nine Russian artillery systems and two electronic-warfare stations, according to the General Staff in Kyiv.
Ukraine is seeking to encircle and recapture Bakhmut in the east, while also pushing through Zaporizhzhia in the southeast, in a bid to reach the port of Melitopol on the Sea of Azov, splitting Russian forces, according to news outlets.
Friday is day 576 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, launching the largest military campaign in Europe since World War II.
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Source: PAP, ISW, RBC-Ukraine, Interfax-Ukraine