Ukraine admits ‘complicated’ fighting situation as Russia claims advances

Ukraine admitted that the fighting situation is the east was “complicated” Tuesday — as Russia claimed its forces had advanced more than a mile in the Kupiansk area where the enemy had amassed a force of 100,000 troops.

Comments from both sides have suggested that the fighting on the front lines was ferocious.

Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukrainian ground forces, said in an update that Moscow had concentrated forces in the direction of Kupiansk — a strategically important railway junction in the Kharkiv region — but that Ukrainian troops were holding them back.

“The situation is complicated but under control (in the east),” Syrskyi said on his Telegram channel.

Meanwhile, the Russian state-controlled TASS news agency quoted the Defense Ministry as saying its forces had moved forward by up to 1.2 miles in the direction of Kupiansk.

A spokesperson for Ukraine’s troops in the east told a briefing that Russian forces were trying to seize the initiative in the Lyman-Kupiansk direction, but also said Kyiv’s forces were holding them off.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s military reported “heavy battles” and about 18 combat clashes between the warring sides throughout the day Tuesday.

“Our soldiers are holding their ground,” officials wrote on Facebook.

Russia has more than 100,000 soldiers and more than 900 tanks in the Kupiansk and Lyman area, according to Kyiv. Both cities were recaptured by Ukrainian troops last year.

Moscow also continued sending reserves to the Bakhmut sector in a bid to stop Ukrainians advancing.

A military spokesperson reported heavy fighting for the settlement of Staromayorske southwest of the occupied city of Donetsk, and said Ukrainian troops had the upper hand there.

Analysts with the Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank, have suggested that the Russians’ stepped-up offensive maneuvers in the Kupiansk area in recent days were part of an effort “to exploit Ukrainian operational focus on other sectors of the front and draw Ukrainian reserves away from critical areas of the theater,” namely Bakhmut, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia.

Experts said that while Moscow’s forces “have likely made marginal tactical gains” in the region, the poor quality of the fighters deployed there “will likely hinder Russia’s ability to achieve more than tactically significant gains or make an operationally significant breakthrough,” according to the think tank’s latest war update.

Ukrainian and Russian sources have both reported Moscow’s reliance on “Storm-Z” assault units made up of convicts in the Kupiansk direction. The institute has previously reported that “Storm-Z” fighters have proven ineffective “due to poor morale and discipline.”

Since Kyiv launched its counteroffensive in early June, it has liberated more than 81 square miles of land, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on Monday.

But Kyiv’s soldiers had run into heavily defended positions and minefields, which have forced them to slow their pace to avoid high casualties, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has publicly acknowledged.

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in Washington Tuesday that Ukraine’s counteroffensive was not a failure — but he predicted a long and bloody slog.

“It is far from a failure … I think that it’s way too early to make that kind of call,” Milley said.

“I think there’s a lot of fighting left to go and I’ll stay with what we said before: This is going to be long. It’s going be hard. It’s going to be bloody,” the top US general added.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin likewise offered a cautiously optimistic outlook on the fighting, saying Tuesday that he was seeing Ukraine “make progress” as Russia’s losses continued to mount.

With Post wires