Ukraine Summer Offensive Update Sept 7 (N. America Edition): ‘This Is Very Bad News (For Russia)’

Overview

• Kremlin very upset over depleted uranium shells
• NATO says Ukrainian counteroffensive “moving forward”
• Even Kremlin propagandists are saying Ukraine winning artillery war
• Videos show AFU advancing in Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
• New axis in play in Berdyansk direction

Kremlin still upset over depleted uranium shells

The Kremlin on Thursday denounced US plans to provide depleted uranium tank rounds to Ukraine, saying Washington would be responsible for any negative lingering impact of the munitions' use.

“This is very bad news,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

“The use of these shells has resulted in a galloping increase in the number of cancer patients. The same situation will inevitably await those Ukrainian territories where they will be used.”

“Responsibility will lie with the US," he added.

Peskov’s comments came a day after the Russian embassy in the US said, without a shred of irony, said Washington was “deeply indifferent to both the present of Ukraine and the future of the republic and its European neighbors.”

You can read more about DU ammunition here.

NATO says Ukrainian counteroffensive “moving forward”

Ukrainian forces have been able to break through Russian defences and are making progress in their counteroffensive against Moscow's troops, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday.

Stoltenberg said that when Russia launched its invasion, its military was seen as the second strongest in the world, adding: “Now the Russian army is the second strongest in Ukraine.

“The Ukrainians are gradually gaining ground and it proves the importance of our support and also our ability and willingness to continue the support,” he told EU lawmakers.

Other Topics of Interest

Zelensky Meets CIA Director William Burns in Ukraine

Zelensky said he had met Burns on multiple occasions throughout the war, but their meetings had been undisclosed.

“This is heavy fighting, difficult fighting, but they have been able to breach the defensive lines of the Russian forces, and they are moving forward.”

In recent days, Ukraine has claimed to have broken through Russia's heavily fortified first line of defense in its grueling southern offensive.

Operations: Donetsk Region

The Ukrainian General Staff reported that AFU forces have succeeded in pushing Russian forces out of positions south of Bakhmut. A Russian military blogger confirmed that Ukrainian forces have advanced in Klishchiivka (6km southwest of Bakhmut) in the past three days and that Ukrainian forces currently control half of the town.

Russian sources, including the Russian Ministry of Defense, confirm that Ukrainian forces have disrupted Russian ground lines of communications northwest of Klishchiivka.

Further south, just outside the city of Donetsk, a video published on Wednesday by Ukraine’s 59^th Motorcycle Brigade and verified by the Institute for the Study of War indicates that Ukrainian forces marginally advanced east of Nevelske (14km southwest of Avdiivka).

And because you’ve read this far, here’s a video of a very sneakyUkrainian drone attack on a Russian tank.

Operations: Western Zaporizhzhia Region

Video geolocated by the ISW shows that Ukrainian forces have advanced along the trench line west of Verbove (about 20km southeast of Orikhiv).

Verbove remains one of the most hotly contested fronts of the war, as AFU forces try to break through the Russian lines that extend from layer that runs from just northwest of Verbove to the north of Solodka Balka.

The video shows Ukrainian troops taking fire from Russia’s 387th Motorized Rifle Regiment as they try to break through those defenses.

Even Kremlin propagandists are saying Ukraine winning artillery war

Ukrainian gunners operating technically superior cannon have gained a powerful battlefield advantage and are inexorably reducing the Russian army’s mortars, howitzers, and rocket artillery systems to scrap with something approaching impunity, Russian military bloggers are saying.

Russian “war correspondent” Vladimir Rogov, a Moscow-supported journalist in lockstep with the Kremlin since its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, in a Sept. 6 essay explaining the Russian army’s recent loss of the tactically-important southern front village of Robotyne explained to readers that Moscow’s troops fought hard, but the unpleasant truth is the Russian army – at least at the moment – has no counter to a Ukrainian military armed with superior artillery.

"The main problem is the counter-battery fight. Here, the enemy has a better position, his equipment is more modern and long-range, which directly affects the intensity of shelling (both sides are capable of) in a battle…The situation is difficult.”

Read the full report here.

Ukrainian gains reported following renewed push towards Berdyansk, new axis in play

Following a high-profile visit by President Zelensky, troops deployed to the east of Ukraine’s main counterattack sector launched a new series of assaults and are gaining ground, according to reports from both Ukrainian and Russian sources.

Close-in assaults by Ukrainian Marine brigades under the new regional command, said to be operating south of the town Velyka Novosilka, have broken through Russian fortifications around the village of Novodonetske and are advancing.

This was reported by Kremlin-affiliated military information platforms and the pro-Moscow “combat correspondent” Vladimir Rogov reported “Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) have achieved tactical success.” Russian troops stationed in the village of Novomaiorske, five kilometers east of Novodonetske, had withdrawn following very heavy Ukrainian artillery bombardment using cluster munitions, the government-linked Ukrainian military analyst Anton Geraschenko reported on his personal Telegram channel.

Read the full report here.