Russia claims it has thwarted major offensive by Ukraine in the south

Moscow: Russia said on Monday that its forces had thwarted a major Ukrainian offensive at five points along the front in the southern Ukrainian region of Donetsk and killed hundreds of pro-Kyiv troops.

It was not immediately clear whether the reported attack represented the start of a Ukrainian counteroffensive which Kyiv has been promising for months to recapture territory taken by Russian forces after the invasion of February 2022.

Russian rockets are launched against Ukraine from Russia’s Belgorod region, seen from Kharkiv, Ukraine, late on Sunday.Credit: AP

Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine had attacked with six mechanised and two tank battalions in southern Donetsk, where Moscow has long suspected Ukraine would seek to drive a wedge through Russian-controlled territory.

“On the morning of June 4, the enemy launched a large-scale offensive in five sectors of the front in the South Donetsk direction,” the defence ministry said in a statement posted on Telegram at 1.30am Moscow time (8.30am AEST).

“The enemy’s goal was to break through our defences in the most vulnerable, in its opinion, sector of the front,” it said. “The enemy did not achieve its tasks, it had no success.”

Reuters was unable to immediately verify the Russian statement and the Ukrainian defence ministry and military did not immediately respond to written requests for comment.

A Ukrainian officer works in his battalion headquarters on the frontline near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on May 29.Credit: AP

The commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said on Monday that Ukrainian forces continued “moving forward” near Bakhmut.

Syrskyi said Ukrainian forces were successful in destroying a Russian position near the city.

“We continue moving forward,” Syrskyi said on the Telegram messaging app.

Canada’s Minister of National Defence, Anita Anand (left), with Ukraine Minister of Defence Oleksii Reznikov during the Shangri-La Dialogue on Friday, June 2.Credit: AP

On Sunday, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov had published a cryptic message on Twitter, quoting Depeche Mode’s track Enjoy the Silence.

“Words are very unnecessary They can only do harm,” his tweet said.

Ukraine last week published a flashy video depicting troops preparing for battle and reciting a rousing blessing, which was later aired as a recruiting clip.

Russia’s defence ministry released video of what it said showed several Ukrainian armoured vehicles in a field blowing up after being hit.

Russian forces killed 250 Ukrainian troops as well as destroying 16 tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles and 21 armoured combat vehicles, the ministry said.

Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky (centre), leaves after holding a press conference at the European Political Community Summit in Bulboaca, near Chisinau, Moldova, on June 1.Credit: AP

Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, who is in charge of Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine, was in the area of the Ukrainian attack, the ministry said.

“[Gerasimov] was at one of the advanced command posts,” it said.

For months, Ukraine has been preparing for a counter-offensive against Russian forces which officials in Kyiv and CIA Director William Burns have said will pierce Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hubris.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published on Saturday that he was ready to launch the counteroffensive but tempered a forecast of success with a warning that it could take some time and come at a heavy cost.

“I don’t know how long it will take,” he told the Journal. “To be honest, it can go a variety of ways, completely different. But we are going to do it, and we are ready.”

After seeking tens of billions of dollars of Western weapons to fight Russian forces, the success or failure of the counter-offensive is likely to influence the shape of future Western diplomatic and military support for Ukraine.

Ukraine has in recent weeks sought to weaken Russian positions, but its specific plans have been shrouded in secrecy as it seeks to strike yet another blow against the much larger military of Russia.

Cross-border raids

Moscow was last month struck by drones that Russia said was a Ukrainian terrorist attack while pro-Ukrainian forces have repeatedly crossed into Russia proper in recent days in the Belgorod region.

A pro-Ukraine group of Russian partisans on Sunday said it had captured several soldiers during a cross-border raid and would hand them over to Ukrainian authorities.

The Russian Volunteer Corps made the claim in a video statement released on Telegram following a raid into Belgorod. The Corps, along with fighters from the Freedom of Russia Legion, has claimed responsibility for a spate of attacks inside Russian territory, including last week when Moscow said two civilians were killed during fighting.

Fighters of Russian Volunteer Corps not far from the border in Sumy region, Ukraine. Credit: AP

The one-minute, 26-second video clip showed what appeared to be about a dozen Russian soldiers being held captive, with two lying on hospital beds. The Freedom of Russia Legion released the same video on its Telegram channel.

The Corps said earlier that it had taken two soldiers prisoner. A man from the group, who did not give his name, said more Russians were captured during the course of the day.

The governor of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, earlier agreed to meet the group if the soldiers were still alive. The Corps member in the video said Gladkov had not turned up at the designated meeting place.

“We have already decided the fate of these guys. They will be transferred to the Ukrainian side for the exchange procedure,” the man said.

Members of The Russian Volunteer Corps, the Russian anti-government group that is fighting on Ukraine’s side, with others pose for photos.Credit: Getty

Ukraine and Russia have carried out regular prisoner swaps.

The man said he had just returned from the Russian town of Novaya Tavolzhanka, where Gladkov had earlier reported fighting with what he called a group of “Ukrainian saboteurs”.

Russia’s defence ministry later said its forces had broken up the group, driving its fighters back into Ukraine.

Gladkov later posted a short statement saying he had held talks with local authorities. He made no mention of the proposed meeting with members of the groups.

Ukraine denies direct involvement in the cross-border attacks but has cast them as a consequence of Russia’s invasion, predicting the rise of what it calls forces opposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“These Russian men took up arms against their will. Soon they will understand the whole vileness and injustice of the war unleashed by Putin,” another Corps member who did not identify himself said in the video.

Gladkov said earlier on Sunday that Ukrainian forces had continued to shell his region overnight after two people were killed the previous evening and hundreds of children were evacuated away from the border.

After a two-month lull, Russia has launched hundreds of drones and missiles on Ukraine since early May, chiefly on Kyiv, with Ukraine saying the targets were its military and critical infrastructure facilities.

War in Ukraine

Putin sent troops into Ukraine on February 24 last year in what the Kremlin expected to be swift operation but its forces suffered a series of defeats and had to move back and regroup in swathes of eastern Ukraine.

Russia now controls at least 18 per cent of what is internationally recognised to be Ukrainian territory, and has claimed four regions of Ukraine as Russian territory.

For months, tens of thousands of Russian troops have been digging in along a front line that stretches for about 1000 kilometres, bracing for a Ukrainian attack that is expected to try to cut Russia’s so-called land bridge to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Ukraine says it will not rest until it has ejected every last Russian soldier from its territory, and casts the invasion as an imperial-style land grab by Russia, the world’s biggest nuclear power.

Russia says the war is escalating and says the West is fighting what amounts to a hybrid war against Russia that is aimed at sowing discord and ultimately carving up Russia’s vast natural resources.

The West says it wants Ukraine to defeat Russia but denies that it wants to destroy Russia. US President Joe Biden said last year that a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia would mean World War III.

Reuters

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