On 11 July, attacks against the city of Odessa were recorded. And calls from the Ukrainian government to abandon the cities in the south of Ukraine are intensifying as Kiev intends to go on the offensive and retake the cities taken by Russia. Ukrainian Defence Minister Reznikov spoke first, saying that Kiev was ‘gathering an army of millions’, followed by statements from Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Vereshchuk, who issued a call to leave the ‘Russian-controlled south’ because that same army of millions was about to ‘launch a counter-offensive’. These are cities, let us remember, that have asked for a referendum to be annexed to the Russian Federation; and now we come to the situation on the fronts during the day up to 00.23 on 11 July.
The Kharkiv front did not present any interesting developments. Ukrainian commanders have been regrouping troops for several days. The Russian troops are not even in a hurry, it seems, to launch a frontal attack on the Ukrainian lines thus prepared.
In the direction of Slavyansk the Russian troops have taken control of Knyaze-Hryhorivka and continue to act to take Serebryans’ka. Ukrainian sources report the loss of the village of Bohorodychne, north of Sloviansk. Fighting is taking place in the vicinity of Ivano-Dar’ivika. The offensive continued in the direction of Bakhmut (Artemivsk). The Russian Air Force shot down an AFU MiG-29 near Krasnopiliya.
On the Donetsk front, Russian Air Force Su-35 fighters shot down two Su-25s of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in mid-air. A counter-battery fight against Ukrainian artillery positions is ongoing.
In the Zaporizja region, Russian-Ukrainian forces conducted an artillery exercise against enemy strongholds near Huljajpole and Orichiv. The Ukrainian army is also expected to regroup its forces in this part of the front and then move towards Zaporizja.
On the southern flank, no obvious advance of troops in the direction of Nikolayev was noted today. Apparently, the Ukrainian army is planning to concentrate its remaining reserves to strike in the direction of Kherson.
Kherson is under heavy Ukrainian shelling from the direction of Nikolayev for the second consecutive day. Regular shelling by the Ukrainian armed forces on Donetsk also continued – the Kievsky, Kuybyshevsky, Petrovsky and Kalininskyi districts were again hit by Ukrainian artillery. In the evening, there were reports of massive shelling in the Luhansk region.
The Russians shelled Ukrainian positions at the ‘Pottery Factory’ in Slavyansk killing about 100 Ukrainian soldiers, more than a thousand M777 howitzer shells and about 700 Grad shells. Also on the 10th, the Chasov Yar military base near Bakhmut was attacked by the Russians.
Graziella Giangiulio
