Ukraine's southern offensive
is picking up ground
after seemingly stalling for weeks.
That's according to President Wolinski,
who said earlier
that despite reports
to the contrary, quote,
Ukraine is on the move.
CNN military analyst
and retired Air Force
Colonel Cedric
Leighton is here to help us break down
the latest battlefield advances.
Colonel Leighton,
great to see you as always.
Thanks so much.
So what do you think
the real state
of the counteroffensive is?
You You believe what President
Zelensky is saying,
that this counteroffensive
is advancing to some extent. Absolutely.
So let's take a look at the map
here, Jim.
And one of the key things to look at
is this southern area right here.
This is where everything
is really happening
from a Ukrainian perspective.
There's also some fighting going on
right here in the east.
So if you go into the southern part
of this, a few detailed areas here,
this town of tokamak is a huge Russian
logistics area.
What the Ukrainians want to do,
they've already gained some territory
right here.
They want to move this way.
And then down this way, toward
the Sea of Azov, cut the main highway.
There's a highway that goes this way.
That is the main Russian supply area.
And if they cut that,
they will,
in essence,
cut this land bridge,
the so-called land bridge
between their occupied areas here
in the east and Russian occupied Crimea.
If they do that,
then what they've got is a path forward
to actually cut them apart
and make it possible for them to advance.
And let's talk about the Dragon teeth.
CNN has drone footage
showing Russia's dragon teeth
defense lines in Ukraine's south.
What impact are these obstacles having
and for the viewers at home?
What are they?
Yes, this is a video of the Dragons teeth
right here.
And if we have a still of these,
what we can show you
is that these are pure
middle shapes
that are about three to four feet
high, made out of concrete and rebar.
So basically,
they are designed to keep tanks away
from any of the other areas
so that if a tank is coming this way,
they're going to stall the advance
and prevent them.
They'll actually funnel them this way
and then they can be shot at.
That's why they're important.
But if they can be overcome,
then the dragon's teeth
of course, lose their effectiveness.
And this week we saw the drone assault,
biggest drone
assault on Russian territory
since it launched its war on Ukraine.
Today, Russia claims
it stopped a third sea
drone attack on a Crimea bridge.
Let's talk
about the significance of the drones.
I mean, it's been a key part of this war.
This is
this is really important
because this is the game changer.
Drones have really come into their own
right here.
And this is the scene from Pisco,
which is right on the Estonia and Borders
and 600 miles away
from where
the Ukrainians launched these drones.
Wow.
They were able to actually destroy
four major transport planes.
And, you know,
you see the Ukrainians
working the whole training effort
right here.
It's really important
that they can do this
with Off-the-shelf equipment.
That's basically what we're seeing here.
And they've done so much damage
to Russia's offensive with these drones.
It's just been remarkable.
And Russia says their new Satan
two missile system is now operational
in the war in Ukraine.
What is that?
Can you talk about that?
So the Satan, too, is actually
an intercontinental ballistic
missile system.
It's a liquid fueled
intercontinental rocket.
Rocket which can hit the United States.
This is a nuclear powered one nuclear
missile, MERV capable,
which means multiple vehicles
can take ten vehicles with glide
vehicles up to 16 reentry vehicles.
So this is a potent
intercontinental weapon.
It's not designed for the Ukraine war.
It's designed
for intercontinental threats.
And that's why the Russians
have said that
it's operational at this point.
And just very quickly.
Pentagon says Russian fighter
jets approached U.S.
and coalition aircraft
seven times in August.
This was in Syria.
Talk about this,
the danger that is posed by
what's going on here.
What are the Russians up to?
So what the Russians are up to
is intercepting our aircraft
as they're flying over Syria,
trying to actually make
we're trying
to make sure
that we're protecting the Kurds.
The Russians are, of course,
protecting the Syrian regime.
This is an issue.
35 fighter that the Russians have.
And what it's doing is it's intercepting
a drone,
and in other cases,
it's intercepting our fighters.
So when they do that,
they're trying to intercept our aircraft
and prevent our aircraft from providing
overwatch over our forces
and over the Kurdish forces.
Are more aggression from the Russians.
I have somebody
that's exactly what that is.
As our colonel Laden.
Great to see, as always.
Thanks so much. Appreciate it.