Ukraine said on Monday it was advancing near the eastern city of Bakhmut, but played down the scale of “offensive actions” elsewhere on the front, with Russia instead saying it was repelling large-scale offensives.
These operations are taking place at a time when the Ukrainian authorities say they have been preparing for months for a large-scale counterattack aimed at forcing Russian forces to withdraw from the areas they occupy.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked his forces for the territorial gains they had claimed, mocking Moscow’s “hysterical” response.
“We see how Russia reacts hysterically to all the developments that we achieve in this sector, to all the positions that we take. The enemy knows that Ukraine will win,” Zelensky said in a video message.
An adviser to Ukrainian President Mykhailo Podolak had previously quipped on Twitter that Russia was “busy repelling a global offensive that does not yet exist”.
“In some sectors we are carrying out offensive actions,” Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Jana Malyar said simply.
It also reported, without elaborating, “minor fighting” in the south, where Russian forces are “on the defensive.”
Asked by the press about the chances of success of the Ukrainian counterattack on Monday at the White House, US President Joe Biden answered by snapping his fingers.
Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that since the morning of June 4 it had responded to five sectors of the front “in the southern direction of the Donetsk region” located in the east.
He added that the Russian soldiers inflicted heavy losses on the Ukrainian forces near Neskuchny in the Donetsk region and Novodarivka on the border between this same region and south Zaporizhia.
There were also “new attempts to penetrate the Russian defenses” on Monday afternoon near the town of Novodonetsk, near Voldar, south of the Donetsk region.
The Russian Ministry welcomed that “the enemy did not achieve its goals,” and broadcasted pictures of the destruction of the armored vehicles.
Bakhmut “Epicenter”
According to Kiev, the Bakhmut sector, which saw the conflict’s longest and bloodiest battle and which Moscow claimed to have fought in May, remains the “epicenter of the fighting”.
MI Malyar confirms that the Ukrainian forces are advancing on the outskirts of this city “on a fairly wide front”: “We are achieving success and occupying the dominant heights.”
According to them, Ukrainian troops advanced several hundred meters on this sector of the front.
This Ukrainian advance was confirmed by the leader of the Russian paramilitary Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who said that “part of the Perkhivka locality is already lost”, which is a “disgrace”.
Russian experts and soldiers expect Kiev to redouble attacks on enemy lines to reveal weaknesses there before releasing the bulk of the forces.
In September 2022, the Ukrainian military secretly prepares an offensive that will lead to the reoccupation of almost all of the Kharkiv region in the northeast.
On Monday, Pope Francis’ peace envoy, Italian Cardinal Matteo Zubi, traveled to Kiev to discuss with Ukrainian authorities ways to resolve the war with Russia and humanitarian needs.
He visited Bucha, a town near Kiev that has become a symbol of Russian atrocities.
“boomerang effect”
In Russia, over a period of two weeks, the incursions and bombings in the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, have doubled, which has been claimed by fighters who present themselves as Russians fighting on the side of the Ukrainians.
The raids killed several civilians and injured dozens of civilians.
In the latest operation, on Sunday, one of these groups, dubbed the Freedom Corps for Russia, rounded up prisoners who were to be delivered to Kiev. Dozens of detainees, including two wounded, appeared in a video.
This is the first time that Russians have been captured on Russian soil.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not comment, saying only that it repelled another incursion on Sunday.
Fighting in recent days has centered around Novaya Tavolganka and Shchepkino near the border, forcing thousands of civilians to flee to Belgorod, the region’s capital.
We’re in terrible shape. “But we are holding on, we are trying to be strong, because we have children,” Irina Burlakova, a displaced person, told AFP.
During the night from Sunday to Monday, the Belgorod region was again hit by strikes and a drone attack, according to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
“What exactly is happening in the Belgorod region right now? It’s simple, it’s a boomerang effect,” Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter, reiterating that Ukraine “was not involved in these attacks.”
Meanwhile, in Brussels, the European Commission announced on Monday that restrictions imposed by five EU countries (Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania) on importing Ukrainian grain to protect their farmers have been extended until September 15, despite opposition. From Kiev, denouncing the protectionist and cruel measures and resistance of part of the twenty-seventh.
