UKRaine Adopts Slow Approach to Counteroffensive: ‘Our Problem Everywhere Is the Sky’; UKR Takes Responsibility for Deadly Attack on Key Crimean Bridge; UKR’s Armed Forces Advance on Tavriia Front; UKR Regained Nearly 18 sq km of Land in Past Week, LIVE UPDATES and MORE

WSJ: Ukraine Adopts Slow Approach to Counteroffensive: ‘Our Problem Everywhere Is the Sky’:

Six weeks into Ukraine’s counteroffensive, Capt. Anatoliy Kharchenko and his reconnaissance company were supposed to be wreaking havoc miles behind Russian defensive lines pierced by Western-supplied armored vehicles.

Instead, after many of the vehicles got bogged down in minefields, Kharchenko and his men are training how to advance methodically on foot, moving from one line of trees to another, faced with the prospect of taking back their country one field at a time.

“We’ve got nothing to lose,” Kharchenko said. “Victory isn’t just important, but it’s the only option, otherwise we’ll all be dead.”

Ukraine’s counteroffensive, launched at the start of June, is aimed at retaking some of the nearly 20% of Ukrainian territory occupied by Moscow. The West provided dozens of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles and trained thousands of Ukrainian troops for the campaign.

The swift loss of several tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, many of them immobilized by mines or missiles launched from attack helicopters, jolted Ukraine and its Western backers. Ukraine hasn’t achieved a decisive breakthrough, although it has seized several villages.

Kyiv’s political and military leadership has complained that slow and insufficient deliveries of Western weaponry left it no choice but to assault Russian lines without adequate air defenses, leaving troops and vehicles vulnerable.

The Ukrainians are adapting and seeking to press forward in the south as well as around the eastern city of Bakhmut, Russia’s only significant gain in its winter-and-spring offensive. Advancing slowly and meticulously to preserve Western armor, the central aim remains reaching the Sea of Azov, cutting off Crimea and squeezing Russian forces out of the southern Kherson region.

Most of the Ukrainian brigades trained and equipped by the West remain in reserve, waiting to strike. Officers are seeking to preserve precious Western equipment, from tanks to shoulder-fired Stingers, while still pushing forward.

“We are probing with our fingers and working out where to direct our fist,” said Kharchenko.

The stocky former paratrooper and his company of some 100 men had been prepared to push through any gap created in Russian lines and dash south. —>READ MORE HERE

NY POST: Ukraine takes responsibility for deadly attack on key Crimean bridge:

Ukraine’s military has claimed responsibility for an early morning attack Monday on the bridge connecting the annexed Crimean peninsula to Russia’s mainland that killed two people and left their daughter injured.

A member of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) told CNN the attack on Russia’s key supply route was a joint operation with Ukraine’s naval forces.

This is the second time since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine that the 12-mile crossing, also known as the Kerch Bridge, was the target of an attack. The first time was in October when a fuel tanker exploded while crossing to Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.

Traffic sat at a standstill for about six hours following the strike, which was carried out by two Ukrainian maritime drones at about 3 a.m., Russia’s National Anti-Terrorist Committee said.

The attack killed two people, identified by Russian media as Alexei and Natalia Kulik, who were traveling to Crimea for summer vacation. The 40-year-old man was a truck driver while his 36-year-old wife was a municipal education worker. —>READ MORE HERE

Follow links below to +++++relevant+++++ and related stories:

+++++Russia-Ukraine News LATEST UPDATES: (REUTERS) (AP) (NY POST) and (WSJ)+++++

+++++Ukraine’s Armed Forces advance on Tavriia front+++++

+++++Ukraine says it has regained nearly 18 sq km of land in past week+++++

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