The War Between Russia and Ukraine: Live Updates – The New York Times

It was not immediately possible to confirm either side’s account of the fighting.

Although Ukraine’s battle plans target specific areas to try to penetrate Russian lines, its forces are testing Russian defenses in many places for weaknesses and low morale, and are ready to change positions to focus in those areas.

The final battle took place in the flat steppes of southern Ukraine, an unforgiving terrain of war with little cover for advancing forces, where Russia laid mine belts and dug layer upon layer of defensive trenches. Ukrainian military and local official appointed by Russia, Vladimir RogovOn Friday, he said heavy fighting was taking place south of the town of Orekeev.

This area is close to where military analysts have said for months that the Ukrainians could concentrate the brunt of a counter-offensive operation, armed with their newly acquired arsenal of Western tanks and armored personnel carriers. Analysts say Kiev’s bid there is part of an effort to drive a wedge into territory Russia has seized since it launched its all-out invasion last year, splitting the region in two and severing Moscow’s supply lines to occupied Crimea.

And starting Thursday, pro-war bloggers and the Russian military reported that Ukraine had tried unsuccessfully to advance a few miles east of Orekiev, near the village of Mala Tokmachka. Videos and photos posted by bloggers, and verified by The New York Times, show that at least three Leopard 2 tanks and eight US-made Bradley Fighting Vehicles were recently abandoned or destroyed by Ukrainian forces.

Two US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations, said the advancing Ukrainian forces had suffered losses, but US assessments quantifying those losses were still being developed. Officials said the Russians also suffered some casualties.

In most military campaigns, attacking forces typically suffer higher initial losses than dug-in defenders, and much of the terrain in southern Ukraine is flat and open – leaving troops and armored vehicles vulnerable to enemy artillery.

The Times also verified, according to photographs released by a Ukrainian brigade, that Ukrainian troops were on foot in Lobkove, a settlement west of Orekiev, for the first time in the vicinity of the attack. But the videos and photos appeared hours or days after they were taken, many of them coming from pro-Russian sources, making it impossible to say which side had the advantage in the fight.

About 60 miles east of Orekiv, Ukraine was also attacking across the plains near the town of Velika Novoselka, where Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Thursday a battle was raging. Ukrainian officials also said they were attacking Russian positions on the outskirts of the eastern city of Bakhmut, which fell to Russian forces last month after the longest and bloodiest battle of the war. On Thursday, the Ukrainian military said it had advanced several hundred meters near Bakhmut.

The attack near Orekiv directly hits a thick line of Russian defences, suggesting that Ukraine might attempt a frontal attack on one of the shortest paths to carving up Russian-held territory. Commercial satellite imagery showed multiple lines of Russian defenses in the area, with Russian forces spending months laying mine belts, digging bunkers and erecting concrete barriers for tanks.

Pentagon officials and military analysts have cautioned against trying to make broad assessments of Ukraine’s success based on a few days of fighting in a few locations.

“This is not something you judge based on a few days’ fight,” Michael Kaufman, director of Russian studies at CNA, a research institute in Arlington, Virginia, said in a Twitter message Friday. “The offensive will continue over potentially weeks and months.”

Christian Tripert And Haley Willis Contribute to the preparation of reports.