Ukraine persists in the counteroffensive
Ukraine continues to insist on its counter-offensive to get the Russian army to back down in the war that is taking place on Ukrainian territory. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian army continues to receive Western aid, and grain and food insecurity continue to be used by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a weapon of war.
María Senovilla, journalist and contributor to the magazine Atalayar and other media, stopped by the microphones of Onda Madrid's "De cara al mundo" programme to talk about the course of the war in Ukraine from where she reports as a correspondent.
María, where are you at the moment?
I am in Zaporiyia, in the rear of Bakhmut, where I am covering the counteroffensive on the eastern Ukrainian front.
How is the counteroffensive going? Until recently there was no good news. Now there seems to be better news.
Well, this seems to be a turning point. There is a last-minute turnaround, this counteroffensive that had been going on for two months had not had the expected results. I think that the media had raised expectations, perhaps too high, because thinking about that other counteroffensive that took place in the autumn, which was a blitzkrieg, in which in two months they managed to liberate a fairly large amount of land, well, quite a lot of land, and we were expecting something similar here, which has not been possible because the Russian defence positions are incredibly fortified, they have had more than half a year to draw up these defensive lines in which there are kilometres and kilometres and kilometres of new trenches which are also very well stocked with ammunition, especially anti-tank ammunition to stop any attempt at a mechanised offensive. It is very difficult to advance, and to this we must add an absolutely worrying piece of information, which has also become known this week, which is that Ukraine has now become a country in which 30% of the land is sown with anti-personnel mines, with a density of mines that has never been seen before, in other words, it is no longer just that 1/3 of the country is sown with mines, it is the number of mines that are sown in that third.
What the Russians have done is to surround all their defensive positions with an almost impregnable density of mines, so that any attempt at a Ukrainian counter-offensive without aviation is complicated. Let's remember that they are asking for those F16s and that, for the moment, they are not arriving, because any attempt to try to open breaches without aviation is almost like hitting a wall.
So the recent news of this Ukrainian advance in the province of Zaporiyia towards Melitopol is a turning point in the course of this counteroffensive. Melitopol is one of the key targets in this counteroffensive. Melitopol is the city between the razed Mariupol and southern Kherson, and the Ukrainian forces' aim is to break the corridor that Putin had managed to establish between Russia and Kherson, occupying the territories of Donbass and Zaporiyia, and finally Kherson, the province just above the Crimea, thus closing off Ukraine's access to the Sea of Azov. That is why this part occupied by Russia is so important and strategic, and that is also why this is not about ideology, nor is it about cleansing Ukraine of Nazis, as the invasion justified at the beginning.
This is about economic, geostrategic and commercial interests. So if Ukraine manages to regain Melitopol, it would break this corridor, it would break the logistical chain with which Russia supplies ammunition to its occupying troops, and it would also reopen access to the Sea of Azov. That is why it is so important to recapture the occupied territory precisely on this Berdiansk-Melitopol axis, and what has happened in the last 24 hours? Well, Zelensky's army, which has been hard at work in the south, seems to have managed to break through and break through Russian defensive positions. These positions are surrounded by a huge number of mines fortified with new trenches, with kilometres of new trenches and also equipped with a lot of anti-tank ammunition.
They're saying that the Ukrainian strategy in the last two months may have been to disrupt the Russian troops in those trenches, to let them expend ammunition and ammunition and ammunition and ammunition and ammunition to be able to advance. I'm not so sure whether this was the result of strategy or, I don't know whether to call it stubbornness, but it was certainly the result of an insistence on breaking through with very few resources, because without those F-16s, without a major air force, this is an almost titanic task.
But the Russians also seem to be on the move in Lugansk, don't they?
That's right, what we have been talking about is happening on the eastern front of Ukraine, on that axis, specifically in Zaporiyia, they are also pushing on the Bajmut side, in the Donbass, but on the eastern front what Russia is trying to do is to divide the troops of Zelenski's army.
A little over a week ago it mobilised the almost or more than 100,000 troops it had positioned in Lugansk, which is the province that borders, let's say, with the southeast of Kharkiv. And an offensive began, a Russian offensive began on this Kupiansk-Kremina axis, which we have also talked about in other programmes and which was also being particularly bloody. What they are doing these days is launching heavy artillery, drones, waves of ground assaults in an attempt by the Russians to break through the Ukrainian defensive positions and thus force Zelensky to move some of the troops he is pushing towards Zaporiyia and Bakhmut to the eastern front; in order to divide and rule and also to relieve the pressure on these points where he saw that the Ukrainian army was still insisting.
Cereals and grain are another weapon in this war. The week has been hellish, the Russian bombardment has increased in the last few hours, including on Odessa and other Ukrainian ports.
That's right, it's been a truly terrifying week. Moreover, in a city like Odessa, where the war has been a bit of a sideshow because there have been occasional bombings against critical electricity infrastructure and against centres linked to military commanders, but there has not been a wave of massive attacks that has continued for a week, during which there have been nights in which Russia has launched up to 70 missiles and as many drones.
So it is impossible for the anti-aircraft artillery to stop such a large number of missiles flying against this city; apart from destroying the port infrastructure, destroying all the wires in which the grain that Ukraine has prepared to export was stored, and here comes the hypocritical part that at the Russia-Africa summit Putin promised to send up to 50,000 tonnes of grain free of charge. Well, Ukraine had 60,000 tonnes of grain stored in these silos, 10,000 tonnes more than Putin promised. And not only has he destroyed the grain, he has also destroyed the infrastructure through which it could be exported.
It seems that the attacks are not going to stop, although it seems to me that there is little left to destroy. The latest information from the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure told us that it will take more than a year to rebuild what Russia has bombed so far. We insist, if the attacks continue, it will be even greater and, furthermore, another avenue of attack will open up, which is against the river ports, such as the one on the banks of the Danube River, which I have seen because I have recently entered and left Ukraine several times by ferry on the Danube River and I have seen that infrastructure which has also been made impossible for exporting grain from the south of Odessa, grain that cannot be taken out through the Black Sea at the moment. So, effectively, it has turned grain and also world food stability into a weapon of war.
Moreover, it is using its interests in Africa to try to break the international isolation, but also to win allies and, above all, the pincer. I still maintain that Putin's strategy is a northern pincer in Ukraine and a southern pincer with Africa.
I was saying that it is a pincer, but if you look at the last summit with African countries, there were twice as many countries as those that have come to St. Petersburg now. So perhaps this is also an indicator that Putin's policies of trying to influence Africa are not working well with all the African countries with which he is trying to strengthen ties. This also needs to be taken into account.
Moreover, American and European diplomacy is also working to keep these African countries on the Western side and not on the Russian side. I'm talking about Spain, which continues to show its support for Kiev at a complicated time, not as you have been saying on the battlefield.
That's right, on 1 July we remembered that Pedro Sánchez came to Kiev. A meeting that I had the opportunity to cover and in which he promised Zelenski, live at the press conference attended by the Spanish media who are stationed here in Ukraine, a field hospital with surgical capacity. In addition to finishing the shipment of Leopard tanks, we remember that six had been sent and another four were still pending, as well as other armoured vehicles, ammunition supplies and medical supplies for the hospital.
Well, the Spanish field hospital is already in Poland. It's probably crossing the border by now, if it hasn't already crossed the border to deploy somewhere in Ukraine. I will try in the next few days to find out where it is, to see if it is possible to travel and do a report on how it is deployed and the use they are going to make of it.
In addition to this, the four Leopards, the four tanks that were missing from the batch that was sent, have also left via the sea. The last announcement he made was the shipment of half a thousand turnstiles. I suppose you have also been told that as a requirement to cover the health spectrum at a point where the counteroffensive is taking a terrible toll on personnel, there are many, many, many casualties. Not only dead, but many wounded, both by mines and mortar fire, as well as by the heavy artillery that Russia is using, and the stabilisation points tell me that there are days when they cannot cope. The tourniquet, for those who don't know, is a kind of strap with which you can stop bleeding in a leg or arm. In those wounds, which are the most common ones that occur on the battlefield, a tourniquet can save a life. It's not that it's a huge amount of material, but it's a material that can save lives on the battlefield. So the Ukrainians appreciate it.
Sometimes when I go to the front line to some position and they ask me what nationality I am, I tell them I am Spanish and they thank me for what we are sending them. Sometimes I feel a bit ashamed because, really, compared to other countries like Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States we don't even talk about, because what we send are almost insignificant amounts, but the Ukrainians are aware of all the allied countries that are helping them, that are supporting them, that are sending them material, and when you go to their positions and you have the chance to spend some time with them, they thank you for it. It is tremendous.
