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The military said on August 19 that Ukraine’s air defense killed 15 of the 17 Iranian Shahed drones that Russia employed in its most recent overnight raid on Ukraine, despite the Russian Defense Ministry’s assertion that it had shot down a Ukrainian missile over Moscow-occupied Crimea.
An air-raid alert had previously been issued for the entire country of Ukraine.
The military reported that Ukrainian forces were engaged in a total of 36 confrontations along the front line over the previous 24 hours. They are advancing in the vicinity of the southern cities of Melitopol and Berdyansk.
In an effort to cut off Russia’s land bridge to Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, Ukrainian soldiers are making a drive into the strategically important city of Melitopol, which is currently seized by Russia.
In the midst of the continuing counteroffensive, Ukrainian forces do not seem likely to reach and reclaim Melitopol, according to a U.S. intelligence analysis cited by The Washington Post.
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US Officials Optimistic Despite Slow Progress in Ukraine Conflict
Unnamed U.S. officials told Reuters on August 18 that despite the assessment and the scant progress made in Melitopol, Washington still thought it was possible to turn around the bleak prognosis.
The forecast mostly agrees with Washington’s assessment that the counteroffensive is progressing more slowly than anticipated.
According to Reuters, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan declined to comment but noted that numerous evaluations of the Ukrainian conflict had been made, many of which had evolved as the conflict progressed.
Over a fifth of Ukraine is under Russian control, including the Crimean Peninsula, the majority of the Luhansk region, and sizable portions of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson regions.
In his nightly video message, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated that the government is developing “powerful things” to reinforce the state, including opportunities for the country’s defense and weapons for Ukrainian military.
A missile was shot down over the Crimean Peninsula overnight on August 19 by Russian air defense forces, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. No one was hurt, and no damage was done.
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Source: RFERL
