Putin Says Ukrainian Assaults Intensify as Kyiv Touts Regular Beneficial properties

(Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned on Wednesday that Ukraine had intensified its frontline assaults over the previous couple of days whereas a Ukrainian official mentioned Kyiv was making gradual however regular progress in liberating its territory.

On Wednesday, three totally different media shops cited unnamed U.S. officers as saying Kyiv had launched a brand new part of its formidable counteroffensive which seeks to eject Russian troops from the almost 20% of Ukrainian land nonetheless beneath occupation.

Requested about these studies, Yuriy Sak, an adviser to Ukraine’s defence minister, instructed Reuters that “there may be nothing new” taking place at entrance traces. “Within the south, we’re transferring ahead slowly however absolutely,” he mentioned.

In the meantime, Putin instructed Russian tv that each Ukrainian assault had been overwhelmed again, and that Moscow’s forces had inflicted vital losses on their opponents.

Russia’s defence ministry mentioned Russian forces had repelled Ukrainian assaults across the village of Klishchiivka close to Bakhmut, and north of Robotyne on the entrance line within the Zaporizhzhia area, Russian state information company TASS reported.

Reuters couldn’t independently confirm the battlefield studies.

Ukraine’s counteroffensive has to date moved slowly, solely recapturing a number of hundred sq. kilometers, a tiny fraction of the territory nonetheless beneath Russian management.

Nonetheless, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed “excellent outcomes” on the battlefield in an tackle on Tuesday night, promising to present particulars later.

One of many few areas the place Kyiv has loved success to this point has been alongside the Mokri Yaly river in southeastern Ukraine, the place Ukrainian troops have captured a number of settlements and are actually nearing the Russian-held village of Staromaiorske.

Aleksandr Khodakovsky, an influential Moscow-backed separatist commander in japanese Ukraine, posted an offended message on his Telegram channel on Wednesday complaining about heavy shelling of Staromaiorske over a number of days adopted by a Ukrainian assault which had made some features.

Sak mentioned there was preventing ongoing close to Staromaiorske however the village was “not but” beneath Ukrainian management.

(Reporting by Max Hunder and Felix Mild; Enhancing by Mark Trevelyan and Mark Heinrich)

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