UKRAINE BLITZ BEING COUNTERED

Grey River Argus, 7 October 1941, Page 5

UKRAINE BLITZ

BEING COUNTERED

German Flank Forced Back I Aus. & N.Z. Cable Assn.] . LONDON, October 5The sixteenth week of fierce battle on the Eastern Front finds the Russians still holding grimly to their lines and fighting back strongly at several points. It is in the Ukraine that the Germans have made their biggest and most dangerous thrus-. In the northern Ukraine the situation remains critical, with the Germans throwing their main forde in the direction of the big industrial centre of Kharkov. All reports indicate that the Russians are fiercely contesting every inch of ground, ino light is yet thrown on the nature of the “gigantic operations” to which Hitler referred. The communiques from botn Berlin and Moscow remain uninformative, while the general omission of specific localities from semi-official reports of the fighting, makes it difficult to visualise the progress m any section of the huge front. There is little news of the developments in the Ukraine and Crimea, although fighting in these sectors, at present, holds the most anxious attention. The German admission of stubborn fighting in the region of Perekop suggests that Budenny's ‘forces are still firmly astride the road to Crimea. Immediately east of Kiev organised Russian resistance has ended. Further east, where German pressure is increasing, the Russian resistance appears to be stubborn and effective. The Germans have reached Poltava and Novo Moskovsk. Odessa continues to hold out. Here the Russians have taken the offensive and have occupied new positions formerly held by the enemy. The Russian Tass Agency says the Russians recaptured 15 villages in the south-western sector (presumably Odessa) and inflicted 15,000 casualties on the Roumanians. . The Russian front line from the Baltic to the Black Sea is now more or less straight. The absence of major salients means that no Russian forces are in danger of encirclement unless the Germans press forward in new thrusts, which involve frontal atMost cf the island of Oesel, off the coast' of Estonia, is in the hands of the Germans, who have also landed on Dagoe.