In an op-ed at the UK Telegraph, former 1st Royal Tank Regiment commander Col. Hamish de Bretton-Gordon boasted that British-made tanks sent to Ukraine will help sweep Russia’s conscripts aside.
The former tank commander argues that Russia’s demoralized troops are unprepared for Ukraine’s armored divisions that are meeting Russian forces on the battlefield. He contends that these armored divisions will pulverize the Russian defensive lines since Ukraine will be using Western tactics.
The Associated Press reported on Monday that in the last week, Ukrainian forces have retaken 7 villages in 35 square miles as part of the early phase of its counteroffensive, according to Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Mailar.
In a post on the Telegram messaging platform, Maliar claimed that the Ukrainian flag is once again flying over Storozhov in the Donetsk province while Ukrainian troops have also retaken three smaller villages nearby as well as another three villages in the neighboring province of Zaporizhzhia.
Ukrainian officials said on Sunday that troops had retaken the villages of Blahodatne, Neskuchne, and Makarivka just south of the town of Velyka Novosilka in Donestk.
According to Deputy Defense Minister Mailar, Ukrainian forces retook the settlements of Lobkove, Novodrivka, and Levadne in the Zaporizhzhia province.
Russian officials, however, did not confirm losing territory to Ukraine.
According to the AP, the gains over the past week are small, underscoring the difficult battle ahead for Ukrainian troops who will be forced to fight yard-by-yard to regain the approximately 20 percent of the country that is currently under Russian control.
In his nightly video address to the country on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged that the road ahead will be hard, saying, “The battles are tough, but our movement is there.”
Zelensky noted that the rains have been complicating the fighting and said he is discussing with military commanders what areas of the front will need to be strengthened and what actions must be taken “to break more Russian positions.”
