UKRainian Troops on Front Line Admit RUssians Tougher than Expected in Ongoing Counteroffensive; Moscow Tower was Hit by Drone a 2nd Time in 2 Days; UKR Retakes 15 sq.km in South, East in Past Week; Zelenskyy: Putin is Unable to Invade UKR Ports, We Will Simply Sink His Fleet, LIVE UPDATES and MORE

NY POST: Ukrainian troops on front line admit Russians tougher than expected in ongoing counteroffensive:

Ukrainian troops admitted that the Russians have put up a tougher fight than expected as they continue pushing into enemy-controlled territory.

Troops at the vanguard of Ukraine’s long-planned counteroffensive in the southeast region of the country said that a fierce battle last week revealed that the Russian troops are better prepared than originally anticipated.

“The Russians were waiting for us,” a 29-year-old soldier using the call-sign Bulat told Reuters in the Southern Donetsk Province.

“They fired anti-tank weapons and grenade launchers at us. My vehicle drove over an anti-tank mine, but everything was ok, the vehicle took the hit, and everyone was alive.”

Ukraine’s boldest counteroffensive yet is now in its third month. Last week’s battle of Staromaiorske gave an indication as to why the advance has been so slow — and bloody.

“Our mission was planned to take two days. But we couldn’t drive in during the darkness at the right time, for a few reasons. So we drove in later and lost the right moment,” Bulat said.

Kyiv, with billions of dollars worth of Western military equipment on hand, has admitted that the campaign has been going much slower than expected. Commanders said the deliberate pace is necessary to avoid high casualties.

The Russians have had months to dig in and fortify their defensive positions ahead of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, which they had been expecting.

The Russian defenders had set up “pre-sighted zones” in anticipation of the attack, said a 24-year-old Ukrainian marine with the call-sign “Dub”. —>READ MORE HERE

NY POST: Moscow tower attacked by drone just two days after it was last hit:

A Moscow high-rise that houses government offices was struck in a drone attack just two days after it was last hit, the city’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.

The Tuesday strike on the 21st floor of the IQ-Quarter building, which houses Economic Development ministry offices, did not result in any casualties, according to officials.

Russian air defenses shot down several other drones targeting the capital region and jammed the projectile that hit the government building, causing it to go “out of control,” defense officials said.

Photos of the building showed exterior glass panels missing or damaged, exposing the charred interior — with witnesses saying security services fled as huge shards of glass fell.

Just 48 hours earlier, a security guard was injured by falling debris after Russian officials said it had jammed two drones that crashed into the same government-office building.

Defense officials labeled that Sunday strike an “attempted terrorist attack.”

Ukraine once again did not directly take responsibility for the latest attack, but top presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted that Moscow “is rapidly getting used to a full-fledged war.”

The strike came after drones targeted the Moscow area three times last week as Ukraine expanded its counteroffensive against Russia, which invaded 18 months ago.

However, the puzzling circumstances of consecutive attacks on the same building, located less than five miles from the Kremlin, raised the eyebrows of even Russian state media editors. —>READ MORE HERE

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

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

+++++Ukraine retakes 15 square kilometers in south, east in past week+++++

+++++Putin is unable to invade Ukrainian ports, we will simply sink his fleet – Zelenskyy+++++

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