Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south significantly changed the front line - Serhiy Zgurets 

Today, in the military summaries of the day, the state of things on the fronts, new EU initiatives and new weapons for Ukraine from Sweden.

The situation in the South.

The main intrigue remains around the actions of our armed forces in the South, where the operation to liberate the Russian occupied territories on the right bank of the Dnieper in the Kherson region is ongoing. Details and interim results remain confidential for now. Only OK "South" traditionally report today that the Armed Forces of Ukraine once again hit the Kakhovsky and Antonivskyi bridges and, in addition, our artillery and aviation in the South struck control posts, ammunition warehouses, air defense facilities and enemy concentration points artillery. Of course, all this is an integral and extremely important component of the destruction of the enemy's potential on the Right Bank, but it will not be HIMARS and artillery that will liberate the territories, but our infantry, and all these challenges are clearly understood in our General Staff.

In turn, British intelligence claims that the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the South significantly changed the front line and the Armed Forces took advantage of the relatively weak Russian defense. To be honest, the statement of the British about the weak Russian defense, in my opinion, is completely wrong. Because the enemy built three lines of defense over a long period of time and brought significant forces to the Right Bank. There are at least 12,000 personnel, and the aggressor still has significant accumulated reserves, including armored vehicles and artillery.

The enemy resists and hints to demonstrate gestures of goodwill, he still does not understand. The enemy continued to use the pontoon crossing near the damaged Dariiv bridge in the Novaya Kakhovka area and with the help of two barges again tried to establish the process of moving equipment and personnel across the Dnipro River. It is predicted that in case of withdrawal from the occupied positions, the enemy will resort to active mining and strengthening engineering barriers in front of the front edge of the second line of defense.

All this suggests that the task of liberating the occupied territories on the Right Bank, which the Ukrainian military is currently solving, is an extremely difficult mission.

The situation in Donbas

Let me remind you that our armed forces are restraining the enemy's attempts to advance to Bakhmut, and our infantry is making it impossible for the enemy to press the defense line from Donetsk, Avdiyivka - Maryanka - Pisky, where it is very difficult.

Now the enemy is suffering colossal losses and will try to plug the holes with the 3rd Army Corps, the underformed parts of which are being rushed to the Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv directions. We will see how long they will fight there, but according to any schedule, the coming autumn months on the fronts will be extremely difficult.

Let's take all the news without excessive expectations, but with faith in our victory

Military aid to Ukraine

To a large extent, the ability of our armed forces to contain the Russian onslaught and conduct counteroffensive operations depends on foreign aid. This is the transfer of weapons equipment to us and the training of our soldiers. The EU is currently discussing a new important initiative for Ukraine. Defense ministers of the EU members reached political agreements yesterday to start work on creating a training mission for the Ukrainian army. We are currently looking for the optimal format to meet the needs of the Ukrainian army in conducting training events in the short, medium and long term. Some EU countries, as well as the USA and Great Britain, are already training our troops. Britain trains 10,000 soldiers every three months at its training grounds, and we will understand that in the future there will be a process of coordinating the efforts of various countries in order to carry out the training of our military more quickly, in a more coordinated manner, and in connection with certain types of weapons.

By the way, reliable partners understand that we need more weapons, and today Sweden announced that another seventh package of military aid will be provided. It will consist of ammunition for artillery with a total cost of almost 50 million euros, and this is not the last package, because Sweden is currently considering our proposal for the, to transfer Archer self-propelled howitzers to our armed forces - these are the latest and most technological samples of RBS-70 weapons and systems.