(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)
