
Russia says southeast Ukraine is now the main focus of fighting in the war
CTV
The Zaporizhzhia region of southeast Ukraine has become the most recent hot spot for battles in the 18-month war, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday, as Kyiv's forces press ahead with their counteroffensive.
The Zaporizhzhia region of southeast Ukraine has become the most recent hot spot for battles in the 18-month war, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday, as Kyiv's forces press ahead with their counteroffensive.
Shoigu told Russian military officers that Ukraine has brought up reserve brigades there that were trained by Kyiv's Western allies. He offered no evidence for his claim, which could not be independently verified.
Fighting in the southeast could be one of the keys to the war. If Russian defences there collapse, Ukrainian forces could push southward toward the coast and potentially split Russian forces into two.
Shoigu's assertion was corroborated in part by other reports and assessments of Ukraine's three-month-old effort to drive out the Kremlin's troops.
The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank, citing geolocated footage, said Tuesday that Ukrainian light infantry has advanced beyond some of the anti-tank ditches and dense minefields that make up Russia's layered defences in Zaporizhzhia.
However, it said it was unable to state that the defence was fully breached, because no Ukrainian heavy armour has been witnessed in the area.
It is in the south that the Ukrainian brigades have made most recent battlefield gains as the counteroffensive inches forward under heavy fire.

A U.S. federal judge ruled Saturday that Kari Lake, U.S. President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the U.S. Agency for Global Media, did not have legal authority to take the actions she’s done to largely dismantle the Voice of America. The decision’s effect on VOA operations was not immediately clear.

U.S. President Donald Trump is set to gather with Latin American leaders on Saturday at his Miami-area golf club as his administration looks to demonstrate it’s still committed to sharpening U.S. foreign policy focus on the Western Hemisphere even as it deals with five-alarm crises around the globe.











