On several front sections
Selenskyj: Counter-offensive is under way
06/10/2023, 3:45 p.m
For days, Russian bloggers have been reporting on the start of the Ukrainian counter-offensive. Ukraine has been keeping a low profile for a long time. President Selenskyj is now moving away from this. He confirms the start of the counteroffensive.
According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian counter-offensive in the war against Russia is underway. However, Zelenskyy did not want to explain to the press what phase the counteroffensive and counterattacks are in. Asked for comment on comments by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday that Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive had begun, Zelenskyy shrugged and raised an eyebrow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that the counteroffensive had already begun a few days ago, but that Ukraine had not achieved the goals it had set itself. He spoke of heavy losses in Ukraine. Russian military bloggers reported sightings of German and US-made tanks.
According to the US Institute for War Studies (ISW), Ukraine has counterattacked on at least four front sectors. According to the latest situation report, citing information from Kiev, Moscow and Russian military bloggers, fighting took place near the city of Bakhmut, near the city of Kreminna, in the south-west of the Donetsk region and in the west of the Zaporizhia region.
According to the ISW report, Russian military bloggers and the media have “hasty” claimed in recent days that the Ukrainian counter-offensive has failed. After footage circulated of the front in Zaporizhia with western-supplied tanks damaged or destroyed, some prominent Russian ultra-nationalists claimed that this indicated a failure of a large-scale counter-offensive.
London reports Ukraine’s progress
Britain reported military advances by Ukraine’s armed forces in some areas. In the past 48 hours, there have been important Ukrainian military operations in the east and south of the country, the British Ministry of Defense said. While good progress has been made in some areas and the first Russian line of defense has been breached, Ukrainians are making slower progress elsewhere. Details of the areas were not given.
Independent reporting from the front is hardly possible. Since the beginning of the week, Russia has declared the Ukrainian offensive to be open, while the government in Kiev has always rejected this and emphasized that it will not announce the start.