From the Ukrainian Pravda, July 20, 2023 (machine translation):
The Ukrainian military in the south is advancing hundreds of meters every day – the National Guard
Every day, the Ukrainian military makes a gradual movement several hundred meters to the south and southeast.
Source: Military Media Center , which cites the words of the director of the department of planning for the use of the Main Directorate of the National Guard of Ukraine, Colonel Mykola Urshalovych
Direct speech: "In extremely difficult conditions of mined terrain and enemy fire… our assault groups, supported by tanks and artillery, continue their gradual movement to the south and southeast, displacing the invaders from Ukrainian land. Our soldiers and officers are literally gnawing through the enemy's defenses.
Every day we advance several hundred meters."
Prehistory:
- Earlier, the commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi said that although the counteroffensive is taking place more slowly than it would be desirable, the Defense Forces are still advancing daily with battles at a distance of 500 m to 1 km.
The Ukrainian counteroffensive began on June 5, 2023. The (Ukraine friendly) LiveUAmap on that day looked like this:
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Forty five days have passed since the counter-offensive was launched. Today the map looks like this:
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In the eastward direction just south of Bakhmut/Artyomovsk open fields and some tree rows at a depth of 6,000 meters changed hand. No settlement was taken. In the southern direction during the 5,500 meter advance of the Ukrainians south of Velyka Novosilka six small, empty settlements were taken. (Small = one is literally named 'Five huts'). In the most western part, south of Orikiv, the advance was some 7,000 meter with two small settlements.
Over the last days the front lines in the south have not moved at all. The fighting north and south of Bakhmut has been back and forth for a while and the frontline there is somewhat not defined and largely not really moving.
All attacks came to a halt in the security zone before the real and hardened Russian defense lines.
Forty five days times 'several hundred meters' are at least 9,000 meter. That hasn't been reached anywhere.
The aim of the counter-offensive was to reach the Sea of Azov, some 100 kilometer south of the frontline. At the current speed it would take the Ukrainian army 1,000 days (and many more soldiers and material than it has) to reach it.
Why do General Syrskyi and Colonel Urshalovych think they can fool the Ukrainian people and their soldiers with such weak propaganda talk?