DRIVES IN UKRAINE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 63, Issue 272, 27 August 1943, Page 3

DRIVES IN UKRAINE

GREATER THREAT TO POLTAVA.

SOVIET DEEPENS MIUS WEDGE.

CLOSER TO INDUSTRIAL CENTRE

'N.Z Press Association— Copyright.) LONDON, Aug. 2G.

The Russians driving into the Ukraine have advanced more than 100 miles in the last three weeks, and yesterday were more than SO miles west of Kharkov. In the words of the latest Soviet communique, “the enemy is everywhere suffering enormous losses of men and materials.” The threat to the key railway junction of Poltava was increased yesterday by the capture of the important road centre of Zenkov, 20 miles west of Akhtyrka. This success places the Russians within 30 miles of the KievPoltava railway, the direct German supply line to the Donets basin. Poltava is also menaced by the reoccupation yesterday of Akhtyrka, from which the Russians were thrown after they took it early last week. The battle to the south-east, in the Donets basin, is also going in the Russians’ favour. The Soviet High Command speaks of the occupation of a number of places south of Izyum and south-west of Voroshilovgrad, and of a widening and deepening of the wedge in the Mius river area, where the Russians are moving closer to the big industrial centre of Stalin.

“Where the Russians have pierced the German positions on the Mius river they have widened the breach and threaten to fan out to the north and to the west,” says the Moscow correspondent of the British United Press. “The Russians are not only making the Germans face a very dangerous situation, but are forcing them

to move their available reserves from point to point. German morale on this front is reported to be very low.”

The Moscow correspondent of the British United Press says that the Russians in their great drive against Poltava are advancing toward the Slaviansk-Poltava railway. The latest reports put the Russians 30 milesfrom Poltava in the north, while a second Red Army force moving along the Kharkov-Poltava railway is roughly 40 miles from Poltava.

Correspondents emphasise that the Russians have only six weeks of good campaigning weather left. The Moscow radio says: “Our victorious forces are advancing into the Ukraine on a broad front. The Germans are doing their utmost to stem the drive ’south-west of Voroshilovgrad, but, in spite of bitter resistance, the Red Army lias thrust westwards and crossed the water harrier.” The Moscow radio announced that on Tuesday night Soviet aircraft attacked enemy trains and dumps at tire railway junctions of Unecha and Novozybkov, on the Bryansk-Gomel line, and the railway stations at Barvenkova, Khartisislc and Ivovayskoe, in the Donets basin. Many fires broke out, 10 enemy trains were set on fire, and many powerful explosions occurred. On the same night Soviet aircraft attacked enemy aerodromes, where the Germans had concentrated many aeroplanes. In addition, Soviet aircraft continued to deal blows against enemy concentrations south and south-west of Kharkov. One Soviet plane failed to return. The Moscow radio also reports that Soviet partisans in the Chernigov area, 150 miles west of the front in the northern Ukraine, derailed 11 military trains, wrecking 12 railway engines, 58 waggons loaded with troops, 14 oil waggons, 22 ammunition waggons, and 30 other trucks carrying tanks.