UKRaine Says RUssian Troops ‘trapped’ in Eastern City of Bakhmut; UKR Liberates 14 sq. km Over Past Week; NATO Agrees, UKR Will Join Without Membership Action Plan; Commander Involved in Strikes On UKR Shot Dead in RU, LIVE UPDATES and MORE

Ukraine says Russian troops ‘trapped’ in eastern city of Bakhmut:

Ukraine said on Monday its troops had caught occupying Russian troops “in a trap” in the shattered eastern city of Bakhmut, where its forces have been gaining ground as part of their counter offensive.

Russian accounts of the fighting said Moscow’s forces have repelled or contained Ukrainian advances in the east and south.

More than 500 days into the invasion, Ukraine’s counter offensive which began early last month has focused on capturing clusters of villages in the southeast and moving in on Russian forces holding Bakhmut.

Officials on Monday noted advances in both sectors.

“Bakhmut. The enemy is caught in a trap,” General Oleksander Syrskyi, in charge of Ukraine’s ground forces, said bluntly on the Telegram messaging app. “The city is under the fire control of (our) defence forces…the enemy is being pushed out of their positions.”

In the south, General Oleksander Tarnavskyi said on Telegram Ukrainian forces were “on the move” and Russian forces had lost the equivalent of hundreds of men over 24 hours.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the counter offensive, boosted by supplies of sophisticated Western weaponry, is proceeding more slowly than Ukraine had hoped.

Military analysts say Kyiv wanted to point to at least a degree of success to leaders attending the NATO summit in Lithuania starting on Tuesday. —>READ MORE HERE

General Staff: Ukraine liberates 14 square kilometers over past week:

Ukraine has liberated 10 square kilometers in the south and 4 square kilometers in the east over the past week, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported on July 10.

During the same period, Ukrainian forces have advanced more than 1 kilometer toward Russian-occupied Melitopol and Berdiansk in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, said the General Staff’s spokesman Andrii Kovalov.

In its morning update, the General Staff wrote that the Ukrainian military continued counteroffensive operations on the southern front lines and entrenching retaken positions.

Meanwhile, in the country’s east, Ukraine has repelled Russian attacks near Dubovo-Vasylivka, some 9 km northwest of Bakhmut, and the town of Marinka, according to the General Staff.

“The enemy resists, moves units and troops, and actively uses its reserves. Heavy fighting is happening here (in the Bakhmut area),” said Kovalov, as cited by the Defense Ministry’s media center.

The Russian military has also attempted to advance toward Lyman, Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast, and Kupiansk, Kharkiv Oblast. —>READ MORE HERE

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