The Ukrainian counter-offensive kicked off more than a week ago, with the most intense clashes taking place in the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk areas and around Bakhmut. Kyiv says several villages have been retaken in these areas, but a breakthrough is still to come - if it comes at all. The US weekly Wall Street Journal highlighted in an earlier article that the offensive was temporarily suspended over the weekend due to heavy losses, and that a solution was being sought as to how to push through reinforced Russian defense lines with the lowest military casualties. According to a security policy expert asked by our newspaper, one cannot even talk about a full-scale counter-offensive yet, as the Ukrainians have only deployed three out of the 12 brigades set up for the operation.
Since the start of the Ukrainian counter-offensive, the internet has been inundated with footage of various combat operations, but now videos have emerged that show the brutality of war at close quarters.
The above footage shows advancing Ukrainian units successfully besieging a Russian position, killing ten Russian soldiers. The video was taken on the southern front, presumably in the Zaporizhzhia area, where the fiercest fighting is taking place and where the majority of the villages retaken by the Ukrainians are located, according to available information.
Viewing another recently-shared video, one can almost feel like being in the middle of the war. The footage was taken on board a - presumably - Ukrainian troop transport vehicle at the very moment it was hit by a Russian strike. Recently, several videos have emerged showing the Russians successfully destroying Ukrainian tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and military transport vehicles, some of them supplied by the West. The exact make or type of equipment involved is unclear from the video.
