Evening star., 1943-12-26
Russians Reopen
Drive Near Kiev,
Germans Report
BY the Associated Press.

ES the Associated Press.
LONDON, Sunday, Dec. 90
Soviet troops cut the Germans
Vitebsk-Polotsk supply highway,
captured more than 200 commu-
mites, killed 1000 Germans and
took 600 prisoners yesterday in
their powerful drive toward
VitebSk in Northern White Rus
sia, Moscow said early today,
while Berlin announced the Red
Army had struck with 10000
men in reopening of their
Ukraine offensive west of Kiev.
Gen. Ivan Bagramian's Baltic
Army, driving south from Newell,
reached to within Is miles of the
German bastion city of Vitebsk by
capturing the town of zaluchye on
the Newell Vitebsk railway. Zaluch-
We is 6 miles south Of Gorodok, ia
ken yesterday.
The Moscow midnight communi-
que, recorded by the Soviet monitor
from broadcast, said units of one
Russian formation cut the Vitebsk-
Polotsk highway despite German
attempts by fierce counterattacks
to prevent the loss of the supply
artery which is of very great i'm
portance to them"
The communique gave no further
details of the area in which the
road was cut, but on large-scale
maps the highway is located about
miles north and parallel to the
railway which runs from Vitebsk
60 miles west-northwest to Polotsk.
Five Miles From Railroad.
Moscow broadcasts and dispatches
said the Red Army was less than
miles from the railroad which
has been within Soviet artillery
range for several days. Both the
railway and the highway now are
useless to the German garrison of
Nltebsk since one is under fire and
the other has been cut. The Ger
mans, however, still have line open
south to Orsha, where other lines
60 west to Lepel and Borisov.
The Germans attempted to stem
the Russian wave south of Gorodok
with counterattacks, but were forced
into hasty retreat, the communique
said. Seventeen Nazi tanks were
destroyed and Sc guns and mortars
were captured by the Russians.
The communique also reported
that another 1000 Germans were
killed as reinforced German counter
drives southwest of Zhlobin in
Southern White Russia failed re-
peatedly.
In the new Russian offensive re-
ported by the Germans west of
Kiev, Berlin admitted several
breaches in its lines as the Red
Army took the initiative from Nazi
divisions which have been counter
attacEfr- Nearly six weeks. Battle
lines here were approximately rs
miles east of the pre-1939 Polish
border.
Berlin Indicates Repulse.
Although the Russians were silent
on this sector-the usual procedure
for the first few days of a major
offensive-the German high COM
mand acknowledged in its COM
munique that Soviet troops had
opened up somewhere east of the
rail junction of Zhitomir with large
infantry and tank forces, and Ber-
lin indicated that the Soviet forces
were pushing the Germans back.
The Berlin command reported
"heavy and fluctuating fighting"
raging in this area, using in
"fuctuating" word frequently en-
ployed before to cover news that
the German lines had been broken.
The Germans said So Russian
tanks were shot up in this one Sec
tor in one day alone, suggesting
that great tank battle once more
was under way IN this key region
which threatens the Axis lines in
Rumania to the southwest as well
as in the nearby regions of pre-
war Poland.
The big battle west Of Kiev,
aimed at the very heart of the Nazi
armies in Russia and threatening
to flank the hundreds of thousands
OF German troops to the south in
the Dnieper bend, may prove to be
the strategic key to the entire
Eastern front developments this
winter.
The Germans, fully aware of these
(See RUSSIA, Page A-9D