Evening star., 1944-03-29
Soviet Forces
40 Miles From
Czech Frontier
MAP on Page A-2.)
BY the Associated Press.

dion Y. Malinovsky's Sd Ukrain-
ian Army pushed across the
South Russian Steppes from cap
tured Nikolaev toward the great
Black Sea port of Odessa today
while 800 miles to the northwest
other Russian forces were re-
ported within 40 miles of the
Czechoslovak frontier.
The Russians were advancing on
Odessa along curving l75-mile
front. Farther west in Bessarabia
a Soviet communique said, units of
Marshal Ivan S. Konev's I'd Ukran-
ian Army were within 8 miles of
the Odessa -Tiraspol-Iasi Railroad
last principal escape artery from the
port.
Spearheads Of Gen. Malinovsky's
forces which captured Nikolaev at
the mouth of the Bug already were
reported across the Bug Estuary,
driving along the coastal roads
which lead to Odessa, rs miles to
the west. Other columns were
plunging south from bridgeheads go
to 80 miles upstream, where, the
Russians said, Domanevka and 40
other towns and villages fell to
Soviet arms. Domanevka is II miles
north of Odessa.
Berlin Reports Crossing.
Berlin asserted that Marshal
konev's army, stretched along the
east bank of the Prut River bound
ary line OF old Rumania, had crossed
that stream to assault the strategic
rail junction city of Iasi (Jassy), but
neither the Russian communioue
nor front dispatches confirmed this
report of the first Soviet invasion of
Axis territory. Today's German
communique also failed to support
yesterdays Berlin broadcast.
The I'd Ukrainian Army was busy
on other sectors of the center, how
ever, driving south to take the towns
of Tsyra and Koshen not far from
the lateral railway into Rumania.
Other units operating to the north,
Moscow said, captured Linkovtsy, IS
miles southeast of Kamenets-
Podolsk, thus narrowing the neck of
the sack on large German forces
reported cut off in their retreat
from Proskurov.
Forty miles northwest Of Czerno-
witz (CernatuD, Bucovina capital,
in whose outskirts Red Army troops
were reported fighting, Marshal
Gregory K. zhukov's 1st Ukrainian
Army captured Gvozdets, II miles
northeast of Kolamea on the Ger
nowitz-Lwow railway and only 40
miles from the formidable Carpathi-
an Mountain barrier, through which
the famous pass of the Tartars"
leads into Czechoslovakia.
Falls After Fierce Fighting.
Capture of Nikolaev, a combined
land and sea operation, was an
nounced yesterday by Premier
Stain Held by the Germans for
two and one-half years, it fell after
some of the fiercest fighting of the
present offensive
Today the Russians were smash
ing down through approximately
5000 square miles of steppe country
still held by the Germans in the
area above Odessa, but there were
few natural barriers to delay their
drive to that port and the shores
of the Black Sea- On the west they
captured Slobodka, junction point
on the Pervomaisk-Byeltsi and the
Odessa-Lwow railways and then
moved on to storm Voronkov, 113
miles northwest of Odessa. Numer-
GUS other towns south and east of
Byeltsi also fell before the Red
Army advance, Moscow said.
A Berlin dispatch to the Swedish
press today quoted German military
circles as saying that Nazi troops at
Kovel, ITO miles from Warsaw in
old Poland had been isolated by the
Russians and now were being sup
piled entirely by air.
The same dispatch quoted a Nazi
front correspondent as declaring
"one must be prepared for new
retreats"