The Russian army announced on Saturday that it had launched an offensive in Zaporizhzhia, a region in southeastern Ukraine that Moscow illegally annexed in theory last September but which it does not fully control in practice, AFP, CNN and The Guardian reported.

The Ministry of Defense of Russia claims that “several lines and advantageous positions” were captured during the assault.

According to the governor of the region, Oleksandr Starukh, during the night, Russian troops fired more than 160 artillery strikes. In a Telegram post, he reported that 21 cities were targeted, one woman was killed, and two others were seriously injured. Dozens of buildings were destroyed, including a theater.

In the latest report on combat operations, the General Staff of Ukraine reports that there were rocket attacks on the city of Gulyaipole, as well as the city of Nikopol, which is located in the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine.

A Russian-appointed official in the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region claims that Russian troops broke through Ukraine’s defenses and captured four villages. Ukrainian officials do not report these territorial losses, although the updated General Staff confirms that there was constant artillery shelling at approximately 10 points on the front line, including between Orihiv and Kamianskyi.

The front line, including to the southeast of the city of Zaporizhzhia, did not move significantly for weeks. But recently, expectations of a possible serious move by Russia have grown, especially after the head of the Ukrainian armed forces, General Valery Zaluzhny, said in an interview with The Economist last month that Russian forces were “100% ready.” offensive. He expected that this offensive would take place “in February, in the best case in March, and in the worst – at the end of January.”

In its daily report on the war in Ukraine, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said on Saturday that there was a possibility of a territorial advance by the Russians around the hotly contested Donbas town of Bakhmut, but that troop movements were otherwise minor. Private forces backed by the Russian military, including Wagner’s fighters, have concentrated in the town of Soledar after capturing it earlier this week. Further south, in Zaporizhzhia, both sides concentrated “significant forces”, according to the observations of the British Ministry of Defense, an artillery exchange took place. Near Cremina in northeastern Ukraine, Ukrainian forces made small territorial gains and defended against Russian counterattacks. (Source: News.ro)