RIGHT SPEAK: UKRaine’s Next Target: RUssian Trenches; Kyiv says it’s Shifting to Offensive Actions in Donetsk Oblast; UKR Forces on Offensive in Bakhmut Direction, Other Areas; UKR Launched Biggest Attacks in Months, Moscow Says, LIVE UPDATES and MORE

Ukraine’s Next Target: Russian Trenches:

Moscow’s forces have spent months creating lines of physical defenses to impede Kyiv’s expected offensive

While Ukrainian soldiers have spent months training to use new Western tanks and equipment for an expected offensive, Russian forces have been building defenses to stop them.

Satellite images show that the Russians have constructed an elaborate network of obstacles—including antitank trenches, concrete barriers known as dragon’s teeth and layers of advanced minefields—in southern Ukraine, where Kyiv is expected to attack.

For Ukraine’s long-awaited offensive to be successful, its troops will have to find a way through those lines.

“The jury’s still out,” said North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg recently, warning against underestimating Russia in the fight. “The Russians have been able to dig in deep defensive lines.”

The fortifications Russia has established are primarily in the southern Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, where analysts believe Ukraine is most likely to target its attacks. The Russian Ministry of Defense said Monday that its forces repelled Ukrainian attacks the day before along the front line further east, in the Southern Donetsk area. Ukrainian authorities didn’t immediately comment on Moscow’s statement.

U.S. officials said they believe Ukrainian troops can push far enough south to cut the land bridge between Russia and Crimea, which Moscow has occupied since 2014 and used as a staging ground for its invasion last year. --->READ MORE HERE

Sergey Shestak/AFP via Getty Images

Ukraine war latest: Kyiv says it’s shifting to offensive actions in Donetsk Oblast:

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed to have defeated a large-scale Ukrainian attack in Donetsk Oblast on the morning of June 5 in the first announcement of what could be the start of the long-awaited Ukrainian counteroffensive.

The ministry alleged that Ukrainian forces had launched a major offensive "in five sectors of the front in the southern Donetsk area," using six mechanized and two tank battalions.

According to the report, Ukraine allegedly lost over 250 personnel, 16 tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles, and 21 armored fighting vehicles.

Later on June 5, Ukraine's Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said that Ukrainian forces were shifting to offensive actions "in some areas," adding that the move was part of the country's general defensive operation that started on Feb. 24, 2022.

According to Maliar, Ukraine's military is successfully advancing near Donetsk Oblast's Bakhmut along a "fairly wide front," capturing the dominant heights. The Bakhmut area reportedly remains the epicenter of hostilities.

Ukrainian troops have advanced 200-1,600 meters toward the villages of Paraskoviivka and Orikhovo-Vasyllivka north of Bakhmut and 100-700 meters toward Ivanivske and Klishchiivka south of Bakhmut, according to the deputy defense minister.

The Ukrainian official also reported fighting "of local importance" in the country's south, which is seen as the most likely direction for Ukraine's major breakthrough.

She added that Russian reports on the alleged start of the long-awaited Ukrainian counteroffensive were meant to divert attention from Moscow's losses near Bakhmut.

Earlier on June 4, Ukraine's Ministry of Defense released a video saying that the beginning of the counteroffensive would not be announced. --->READ MORE HERE