Ukraine destroys four helicopters deep in Russia’s rear. Ukrainian troops recapture territory in Kharkiv region, a village in Luhansk. U.S., Ukraine delegations discuss a halt on attacks on ports.
Ukraine destroys four helicopters deep in Russia’s rear
Ukraine destroyed four Russian helicopters in Russia’s Belgorod region in an attack deep behind enemy lines. Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces took out the two Ka-52 and two Mi-8 helicopters in a joint operation with Ukraine’s military intelligence, rocket forces and artillery, the special forces said on Monday.
The strike targeted a hidden staging area in the rear, a camouflaged landing platform, designed to quickly deploy or launch surprise attacks on Ukrainian troops. Ukraine used HIMARS rockets in the attack, according to the released footage.
Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces said in a statement that Russia “once again thought” that its forces were safe deep in the rear. “We have once again proven that there is nothing unattainable for the Special Operations Forces. Our work goes on,” the message reads.
The Ka-52 is an attack helicopter designed to conduct reconnaissance missions and strike ground targets. The Mi-8 is a transport helicopter, used to transport equipment and personnel, and support ground operations.
Ukrainian troops recapture territory in Kharkiv region, village in Luhansk
Ukraine’s defense forces have retaken an area near the village of Dvorichna in Kharkiv region, a representative of the 429th Achilles Separate Regiment of Unmanned Forces, Oles Malyarevych told Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne on Monday.
“As for Dvorichna, blue zones that are visible on a map by DeepState [a Ukrainian OSINT project], are the deoccupied parts of the territory. [The troops] have improved their positions. These were very important, but not large operations,” Malyarevych said.
Russian forces do not have territorial gains in the Kupyansk direction, yet they do not stop assaults there, he continued.
“The enemy is now using infantry units and trying to make pontoon crossings, which is not new by itself. We find them when they near the [Oskil] river, and we don’t always succeed. We take them out at pontoons or when they come close to them, and we destroy them on the left bank of the Oskil,” Malyarevych said.
He added that Russia had taken “quite serious losses” on the right bank of the Oskil.
Russian forces that have managed to cross into the right bank and have not been destroyed “dig holes and search for houses, trenches and basements,” Malyarevych said.
Sometimes the map marks an area as red, or occupied, while “there are three-four persons in the sector.” It does not mean that an enemy regiment “has entered there and remains in the area,” that’s what characterizes fighting in this direction. “There is around half a thousand enemy’s infantry troops there, but they are dispersed over a large area, and it is difficult to detect them and take them out,” Malyarevych said.
Ukraine’s Third Army Corps has recaptured a village of Nadiya that sits on the administrative line between Kharkiv and Luhansk regions.
The 1st Assault Battalion was the primary force in an operation to force the Russians out of the village. They retook three square kilometers of territory.
“The capture of Nadiya cost the enemy two months of effort and two wiped out mechanized regiments — the 752nd and 254th of the 20th Russian Army,” Colonel Andriy Biletskyi, commander of the Third Army Corps, said on Sunday.
U.S., Ukraine delegations discuss halt on attacks on ports
Ukraine officials held a round of talks with representatives of the U.S. in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Sunday. Ukrainian Defense Minister and delegation chair, Rustem Umerov, said the talks had lasted about five hours. “The discussion was productive and focused — we addressed key points including energy,” he wrote on social media. The delegations discussed a number of “technical issues,” including protection of energy facilities and critical infrastructure, he added.
Speaking of the talks in his nightly address, President Zelenskyi said the Ukrainian team was working “in an absolutely constructive way.”
U.S. and Ukraine officials discussed a halt on attacks on the Ukrainian ports of Odesa, Mykolayiv and Kherson, advisor to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Serhiy Leshchenko said on national television on Monday, commenting on the talks in Saudi Arabia the day before.
He said the discussions with American officials were about “infrastructure and shipping safety.”
“It was about a mutual ceasefire. We are not attacking their facilities at sea, including river facilities. They are not attacking our facilities and our ports,” Leshchenko said.
– Kherson, Mykolaiv, and the ports of greater Odessa, so that they function.
He added that the ports in question included the ones in Odesa, Mykolayiv and Kherson.
A prisoner swap and return of Ukrainian children were some of the issues on the agenda of the “technical consultations.” Leshchenko said the meetings will become “quite regular.”
Europe’s Black Sea states are watching on nervously as US-Russia peace negotiations over Ukraine continue today in Saudi Arabia, fearful of a possible deal that would restore some of Moscow’s clout over the contested waters, according to the Financial Times.
Ukraine has successfully driven Russia’s navy out of the western part of the sea, in one of Kyiv’s most striking military achievements of the more than three-year-long war.
Any agreement negotiated is thus expected to be beneficial to Moscow, the officials said, and could affect their countries’ security without giving them a say.
“This is our neighbourhood and we don’t trust the Russians if they are allowed more freedom to operate,” said one of the officials.
