Zelensky sees progress in Ukraine's counteroffensive

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday underscored the progress in his army's counteroffensive to liberate Russian-occupied territories.

"Ukrainian forces are moving forward. Despite everything and no matter what anyone says, we are moving forward, and that is the most important thing. We are on the move," Zelensky wrote on Telegram.

The Ukrainian leadership has repeatedly criticized Western experts for talking about slow progress of the offensive without the expected breakthroughs on the front line.

Zelensky has personally lashed out at the counteroffensive's detractors, saying in June that the bloody fight through extensive Russian defensive systems was not a "Hollywood movie" and emphasizing that people's lives are at stake.

The counteroffensive launched in June aims to completely liberate the regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson, which are partly occupied by Russian troops. Kiev also wants to take back the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.

Meanwhile, a senior Ukrainian official noted that Kiev is now able to reach targets in Russian territory that are 1,500 kilometres away using its own weapons.

Such distant targets are no longer a difficulty because Ukraine has been developing its missile and drone programme for some time, the secretary for the National Council for Security and Defence, Oleksiy Danilov, told Ukrainian radio.

The weapons used on Russian territory were of Ukrainian origin, he said, referring to attacks on Russian military targets, made in the course of Kiev's efforts to repel the Kremlin's forces in the full-scale war that began more than 18 months ago.

He referred to Ukraine's missile programme, in place since 2020, and also the fact that many companies are now involved in drone production. "All this will bring results," he said in a broadcast on Friday evening.

The Ukrainian armed forces are able to hit targets not only at distances of 700 kilometres, but "even at 1,000 to 1,500 kilometres."

Kiev is only attacking military targets, Danilov underlined.

In Moscow, Russia said it repelled a naval drone attack on the Crimean bridge.

"The Ukrainian naval drone was detected and destroyed in time in the waters of the Black Sea," the Defence Ministry in Moscow announced late on Friday night on its Telegram channel.

According to the statement, the attack took place late on Friday evening. The information could not be independently verified.

The bridge from the Russian mainland to Crimea is important for supplying the peninsula as well as Russian troops in the south of Ukraine. The bridge has therefore been attacked several times by Kiev.

Satellite images show that Russia has protected part of the bridge with a barrier of scuttled ships. Observers say this is intended as protection against possible Ukrainian attacks with naval drones.

According to British assessments, Russia is at risk of splitting its forces in the Ukraine conflict as they simultaneously try to repel the Ukrainian counteroffensive in southern Ukraine and also attack in the east.

Russia is continuing to advance on Kupyansk in eastern Ukraine, trying to force Kiev to divide its units between the south and the east, the British Ministry of Defence said, citing intelligence reports.

"Given that Russia has made modest gains near Kupyansk since the Ukrainian counteroffensive began in June, they are highly likely seeking to capitalize on this these by continuing to resource the axis," the statement said.

However, Russia itself may be forced by this to split its forces to prevent a Ukrainian breakthrough in the south on the Orikhiv axis.

Ukrainian forces have reached the first Russian main defence line there, despite the efforts of the Russian Airborne Forces and 58th Combined Arms Army to halt them, according to the analysis.

Britain's Ministry of Defence has been publishing daily updates on the course of the war since it was launched by Moscow in February 2022. The Kremlin dismisses these as disinformation.

Ukraine, with Western help, has been defending itself for 556 days against the Russian invasion ordered by President Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022.