(child cries) (tense music)
(bomb explodes) (child cries)
- [Narrator] After a brief period of upheaval in Russia,
(crowd cheer)
in which President Vladimir Putin's regime
was tested, perhaps, more than at any time
in its over 20 years in power,
(gun shots)
focus has returned to the front lines of the war in Ukraine.
(gun fires)
- I'd say the counter-offensive has been going slowly.
Ukraine's allies certainly hoped
for more progress by this point than we've seen.
- I can't emphasize enough how difficult it is
for a unit to get through this obstacle belt from hell.
It's among the toughest military operations
that anybody can anticipate.
- [Narrator] Here's the situation on the ground right now,
and what to expect next on the battlefield.
(gun fires) (bomb explodes)
In early June,
Ukraine began its long awaited counter-offensive
(gun shots)
with much of the fighting concentrated
in the southern regions of Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk.
- In those first days,
there were big armed formations pushing forward.
They were using German leopard tanks,
(man speaks foreign language)
they were using American Bradley fighting vehicles.
The terrain in the Zaporizhzhia region
where they're trying to push forward is very unforgiving
for an attacking force.
It's very agricultural,
it's mostly very flat open fields you can see for miles.
So there's very little cover.
- (Yevgeny speaks foreign language)
- [Narrator] Then on Friday, June 23rd,
tensions between the Russian paramilitary organization known
as the Wagner Group, and Russian military leaders
boiled over after Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said,
the Russian military had killed a huge number
of his troops in an airstrike.
But as quickly as the revolt had started, it fizzled.
Less than 24 hours after the mutiny was launched,
the two sides reached what appeared to be a truce.
- I don't think the mutiny has had a significant effect
of any kind on the counter offensive.
The Ukrainians were in this holding pattern
(gun shots)
where they're probing for weak spots
and that's what they were doing before the mutiny
and that's still what they're doing.
- So the situation on the ground right now, candidly,
there hasn't been a significant amount of progress.
- [Narrator] Mark Kimmitt
is retired US Army Brigadier General
who served in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Iraq.
- There are three attacks, significant attacks going on
as the Ukrainians are trying to figure out
the soft spots along the front.
The first, this is down here by Bakhmut.
It is flipped back and forth
between the Ukrainian and Russian forces numerous times.
If the Ukrainians were able to blow through there,
I think that they would go further down
to the Southeast as far as possible to the border.
The second area where they seem to be putting a lot
of pressure on is down here by Zaporizhzhia.
Obviously, not only is the nuclear plant significant,
but this also gives a breakthrough route
that takes you all the way to Berdyansk.
If this Ukrainian force was able
to break through to Berdyansk, there would be a cutting off
of the land bridge up towards the Donetsk.
There's a lot of fighting going up here
near Vuhledar as well.
Same idea, this would give them a route through Donetsk,
down to Mariupol, or could take it straight to Mariupol.
- [Narrator] On June 6th, the Nova Kakhovka Dam
on the Dnipro River was breached,
releasing a flood of water from Ukraine's largest reservoir.
- The Russians, fearing that this was
the number one attack route to split off Crimea
and also get out to the water,
they flooded the dam down here at Nova Kakhovka.
Well, it's starting to dry out again
and the water is going into the Black Sea.
That gives the potential for the Ukrainian forces here
in Kherson to start the attack.
- [Narrator] The slow progress
of the Ukrainian counter-offensive, especially in the wake
of the recent chaos in Russia, raises questions.
Why is the counter-offensive taking so long
(gun shots)
and why have the Ukrainians had such limited success
breaking through the front lines?
- [Mark] This is 20 kilometers of hell.
There's absolutely no doubt that it is probably
the toughest fighting outside of the cities
- [Narrator] According to General Kimmitt,
part of the reason why the counter-offensive
has been so challenging is that the frontline
is about 600 miles long.
What's more, the Russians have had months
to prepare their defenses,
which are made up of a series of layered obstacles.
- What the Ukrainians are trying to do
is find the soft spot in that defense.
Now, this is just not a couple of barriers,
the Russians, like most countries,
have what they call a deliberate defense
which is a series of layered obstacles,
all to make sure that the Ukrainian forces
are stopped as far forward as possible.
So you have an overscale Ukrainian vehicle here.
That mechanized company is first going to hit a tank trap.
What a tank trap is,
the whole idea is to have the vehicle go into the trap
and then come up and to get over and out of that,
he's going to expose his underbelly right here.
The fact is that the softest spot
on this vehicle is not the front, it's not the side,
it's not the top, but it's the underbelly.
And as it shows its belly,
it can be engaged by direct fire weapons.
So the next obstacle will be for the troops.
It will be this layer
of barbed wire that the troops will be caught up in.
And here from the trench lines,
you have soldiers firing anti-tank weapons, machine guns
and then what's left of that force,
will try to get in and through the trench line
with both dismounted soldiers and mounted soldiers.
The vehicles and the troops now
have to cross these trench lines.
No doubt, there's a lot of hand-to-hand fighting
because if the vehicles start coming across
in these trench lines can now fire from the side, mayhem.
Absolute mayhem on both sides.
Those that do get through and there will be very few,
it would probably have to be a follow on unit
that does it through this punched hole that they have,
will then hit the mines, these little dots or minefields.
Should they make it through there,
then they hit the dragon teeth.
These are very, very sturdy concrete triangles.
They will stop a vehicle if he tries to drive through it.
And again, to get over it,
he has to expose his belly to get over it.
If this unit gets through,
then they will be hit by casemated, fixed bunkers,
much like you saw in "Saving Private Ryan."
The Russians will be firing artillery,
they'll be firing cluster munitions,
they'll be attacked by aircraft, helicopters, drones.
And so you, it is not difficult to understand
why it's so hard to break through.
- [Narrator] Despite limited gains on the front lines,
the Russian Revolt has provided Ukrainian troops
with a morale boost.
- One thing that I have heard repeatedly
from Ukrainian troops, especially the ones who were fighting
in the East, was that it was much tougher coming up
against Wagner than it was coming up
against regular Russian troops for the most part,
that they were more experienced,
that they were better trained, that they were braver.
But again, they were no longer on the front lines,
and they had been an assaulting force all through
the war up to this point.
And right now, Russia's in a defensive posture
and that's frankly, that's the easier task, is defending.
- That morale boost needs to be seen
by tangible progress on the ground.
And candidly, we're not seeing it since the mutiny started.
- Welcome.
- [Narrator] In a July 6th interview with ABC News,
President Zelenskyy said the counter-offensive
was going to plan.
- (Zelenskyy speaks foreign language)
- [Translator] We all want to do it faster.
The president told me, every day means new losses.
(engine revs)
- [Narrator] To help push back Russian forces,
on July 7th, the Biden administration said
it would be providing cluster munitions to Ukraine.
- We will not leave Ukraine defenseless
at any point in this conflict period.
- I think the thing to watch is,
at some point we're going to see large formations
with dozens of Western tanks.
We haven't seen that.
And I think that that will be when
the counter-offensive is really in full swing.
(soldier speaks foreign language)
(gun shots)
(soldier speaks foreign language)
(bright music)