BBC News: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ukrainian attacks in the key southern Zaporizhzhia region are continuing, Russian officials and military bloggers say, reporting heavy fighting there.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n They say Ukrainian troops – backed by tanks, artillery and drones – are trying to advance south of the town of Orikhiv for the second night running.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A senior Ukrainian defence official said the enemy was in “active defence”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Several military experts have said the focus of Ukraine’s long awaited counter-offensive will be Zaporizhzhia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They argue Kyiv is trying to regain access to the Sea of Azov, splitting the occupying Russian forces in the region into two detached groupings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That would not only weaken their combat capabilities, but also eliminate a land bridge to Crimea – Ukraine’s southern peninsula illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier on Thursday, the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said Ukraine’s counter-offensive had begun – although Kyiv remains tight-lipped on the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, the UK defence ministry said that “amidst a highly complex operational picture, heavy fighting continues along multiple sectors of the front”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It added that “in most areas Ukraine holds the initiative”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russia seized most of the Zaporizhzhia region – including Europe’s largest nuclear power plant – soon after President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion in February 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The regional capital, the city of Zaporizhzhia, is controlled by Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BBC News: Ukrainian attacks in the key southern Zaporizhzhia region are continuing, Russian officials and military bloggers say, reporting heavy fighting there. They say Ukrainian troops – backed by tanks, artillery and drones – are trying to advance south of the town of Orikhiv for the second night running. A senior Ukrainian defence official said the enemy was in “active defence”. Several military experts have said the focus of Ukraine’s long awaited counter-offensive will be Zaporizhzhia. They argue Kyiv is trying to regain access to the Sea of Azov, splitting the occupying Russian forces in the region into two detached… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32579,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32578"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32580,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32578\/revisions\/32580"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}