The increasingly regular series of Russian drone and missile strikes are likely part of a new Russian air campaign in Ukraine aimed at degrading Ukrainian capabilities to conduct short-term counteroffensive operations, ISW says.
Russian forces carried out another series of drone and missile strikes against Ukraine over the weekend.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) says an increasingly regular series of Russian drone and missile strikes are likely part of a new Russian air campaign in Ukraine, aimed at degrading Ukrainian capabilities to conduct short-term counteroffensive operations.
The new Russian air campaign appears to be focused on Kiev and alleged Ukrainian military-industrial and logistics facilities in deep rear areas.
The purported objectives and limited nature of this campaign suggest that Russian forces are immediately concerned about the current Ukrainian ability to launch counteroffensive operations, although the reduced effectiveness of these attacks is unlikely to significantly limit Ukrainian capabilities at large.
Ukrainian forces continued the counterattack around Bakhmut on Sunday. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar reported that Ukrainian forces captured over 10 Russian positions on the northern and southern outskirts of Bakhmut during the day on Sunday.
Ukrainian Eastern Group spokesman Colonel Serhiy Cherevaty stressed that Ukraine’s main objective in Bakhmut is to destroy Russian concentration areas and encircle the city, not to carry out frontal attacks.
The Russian Ministry of Defense denies these reports, saying “there has been no breakthrough in the defense of the Russian force”. Moscow says Ukraine has made “massive attempts to break through north and south of Bakhmut”, and claims “All attacks by the armed forces of Ukraine have been repelled.”
According to ISW, the Russian Ministry of Defense is trying to distract from the recent Ukrainian successes near Bakhmut by praising Russian defensive efforts against the Ukrainian counterattacks.
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