The first official data from the frontline came from the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation at 12:00 noon on 12 September: Russian aviation, missile and artillery forces continue to hit AFU units and reserves in the Kharkiv region.
The Kraken formation, the 113th Territorial Defence Brigade and the 93rd Mechanised Brigade were hit in the areas of the Kupiansk and Izyum settlements. The Ukrainians suffered losses of up to 250 soldiers and more than 20 pieces of military equipment. Units of the 63rd Mechanised Brigade and the 46th Airborne Brigade were hit by Russian Air Force missiles in the areas of the Kostromka and Belogorka settlements of the Kherson region, in the direction of Nikolayev-Krivoy Rog.
An ammunition depot with 45 tonnes of ammunition stored by the Ukrainian Armed Forces was destroyed near the VOHNESENSK settlement in the Nykolayiv region. In the last 24 hours, the Kiev regime has lost over 300 Ukrainian military personnel killed and up to 1,000 wounded in combat operations in this area.
Near the village of Roghi, in the Cherkasy region, the Russian Air Force carried out a high-precision attack on a temporary deployment point of a unit of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Motorised Infantry Brigade from the Operational Reserve. More than 30 nationalists and over 10 units of special military equipment and vehicles were destroyed.
The Ministry reported that the army’s air, missile and artillery attacks against military targets in Ukraine continue. During the course of the day, four AFU command posts in the Slavyansk, Bachmut and Konstanovka areas of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Olgovskaya of the Zaporozhye region were hit, as well as 36 Ukrainian artillery units, manpower and military equipment in 125 areas.
As a result of the attacks, three depots of missile and artillery weapons and ammunition were destroyed in the areas of Novomokhailovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic, Kalinovska in the Dnipropetrovsk region and Poltavka in the Zaporizhzhya region.
In addition, a radio-electronic warfare station near the village of Zaliznichne in the Zaporizhzhia region and a workshop for the repair and restoration of multiple rocket launchers in Kramatorsk in the Donetsk People’s Republic were demolished.
The ADF shot down five unmanned aerial vehicles in the settlements of Nikolayevka in the Luhansk People’s Republic, Slavne in the Donetsk People’s Republic, Petrovka in the Zaporizhzhya region and Bezvodne and Vishnevoe in the Kherson region.
In addition, eight multiple HIMARS and Olha rocket launchers were destroyed in the air in the Kakhovska HPP, Lubimovka, BERISLAV and Tavriyskoye areas of the Kherson region.
That the Ukrainian advance is at a standstill was also evidenced by the words of one of Zelensky’s military advisers: ‘The breakthrough phase has been replaced by the consolidation of the positions of the Ukrainian armed forces. The operation continues, not only in the east, but also in the Kherson region. The phase of breakthrough, rapid advance, tsunami has been replaced by the phase of consolidation of achievements and battles for the occupation of the most advantageous borders – as stepping stones for the next leaps,’ said Presidential Office advisor Oleksiy Arestovych. Jumps to where is unknown.
According to the Ukrainians, 500 square kilometres have been liberated and six settlements inhabited. In Kharkiv, electricity and water are cut off due to the shelling. Confirming the Russian news of yesterday’s attacks on Kharkiv’s TPP-5, a hydroelectric power plant, mayor Igor Terekhov said that energy technicians, rescue workers and public services are working to eliminate the consequences of the shelling. Around noon, the air-raid alarm sounded in the city. After the new bombing, the city is without water and power.
According to JMA chief Serhiy Gaidai, the de-occupation of settlements in the Luhansk region could begin in the near future. However, it is necessary to permanently liberate the town of Lyman in the Donetsk region. And it is precisely in Lyman that the positioning battles referred to by Councillor Arestovych began.
At 1.20 p.m. the DNR People’s Militia reported that they had full control over Krasny Liman. But we learn from journalists at the front that the Ukrainian army has set up a pontoon crossing of the Severskyi Donetsk river on the Raigorodka side, which has allowed them to approach the south-western outskirts of Krasnyi Liman.
Meanwhile, PMC Wagner continued to take areas in the direction of Bakhmut. After liberating the village of Kodema, south of Bakhmut, the fighting on the outskirts of the city intensified. Despite the bitter fighting, the group established control over an increasingly large territory. According to the Russians: All destruction of residential buildings is caused by Ukrainian artillery, as the unit’s fighters do not use this type of weaponry in populated areas. One post states: ‘They [the Ukrainian military] shoot at civilians and also at their own positions if they are afraid we will pass,’ one of the Wagner fighters said in an interview with RT. The Energodar nuclear power plant is closed, all settlements in the Russian-controlled part of the Ukrainian Zaporizhzhya region receive electricity from Crimea after the closure of the nuclear power plant, said the head of the region’s civil and military administration, Yevhen Balitsky.
According to military analysts in the Russian social sphere: ‘Perhaps the Ukrainians will strike on the southern front not near Ugledar, where veteran units with many years of experience in battles against the Ukrainians are located and should be expected after the Ukrainian demonstration of their intentions, but elsewhere. Perhaps somewhere in the Zaporozhye region, where the Ukrainians are not expected to reach the Sea of Azov and cut the land corridor between Russia and Crimea. The venture is extremely risky for the AFU, but it is now in full swing and could make some sudden moves. Even today Ukrainian military leaders said they are going to take Crimea’.
Meanwhile there is growing concern among international organisations about pro-Russian civilians in Kharkiv under Ukrainian fire. Just as in previous days there was concern about the fate of Ukrainians when the Russians arrived.
Graziella Giangiulio
