The Armed Forces of Ukraine announced an operation that allegedly killed dozens of Russian soldiers.
Kiev said on Friday that three days earlier an “effective fire attack” by Ukrainian forces on a training camp where there had been a “concentration of militants” resulted in the loss of 56 enemy soldiers.
The update did not specify the exact location of the alleged Russian casualties, but the statement was preceded by a statement from Kiev that Chechen troops had been conducting looting in the south-western part of Donetsk Oblast.
In addition, the update of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine states that Russia has carried out a total of 43 airstrikes and 79 attacks with rocket salvo systems and that “the enemy continues to focus its main efforts on Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka directions.
A Ukrainian soldier walks between positions on the frontline May 30, 2023 in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. Kiev said on June 10, 2023 that Moscow had fired missiles and drones at Ukrainian targets while Ukraine reportedly began its counteroffensive. Yevhenii Zavhorodnii/Getty Images
Meanwhile, the governor of Poltava Oblast in central Ukraine, Dmytro Lunin, said on Saturday that Russian forces had launched an airstrike on the Myrhorod military airfield using ballistic and cruise missiles and drones, although damage was limited.
Ukraine’s counteroffensive has reportedly begun, although Kiev has made no official announcement about the much-anticipated push to retake Russian territory.
However, Kiev said progress had been made with Serhiy Cherevaty, spokesman for the eastern branch of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. On Saturday, he said Ukrainian troops had advanced up to almost a mile in “various sectors” but did not specify exactly where.
In TV commentaries, Cherevaty also said that 138 Russian soldiers were killed and 236 injured in the Bakhmut area the day before.
He added that Moscow forces attempted a counterattack but were unsuccessful and that there were heavy Russian troop losses and destroyed military equipment. Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.
The Institute for War Research (ISW) said on Friday that Ukrainian forces around Bakhmut and in western Donetsk had made further progress and that counter-offensives were underway in at least four areas of the front.
The think tank noted that Russian news sources had been hasty in claiming that the counteroffensive had already failed, citing damage caused by equipment supplied by the West.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the counteroffensive had begun, but Ukrainian troops “had not achieved their objectives in any combat zone.”
Separately, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a surprise visit to Kiev, where he honored fallen Ukrainian soldiers and laid a wreath at a memorial at St. Michael’s Cathedral in the Ukrainian capital.