Ukraine – Russia war: latest news live | Russia says it has repelled a major Ukrainian offensive south of Donetsk | International

2023-06-05 10:34:20

Russia claims to have repulsed a major Ukrainian offensive in southern Donetsk

The Russian authorities have affirmed this Monday that they have rejected “a large-scale offensive” by the Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk region, partially occupied by Russian troops and one of the four provinces formally annexed by Moscow in last September. kyiv has not reported the alleged attack, in which Moscow claims around 250 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed.

“The enemy launched a full-scale offensive on five sectors of the front” in south Donetsk, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram, adding that the assault was carried out by six mechanized battalions and two tank battalions in an area where Russia I suspected that it could be one of the points where the Ukrainian offensive could arrive. “The enemy’s objective was to break our defense lines in the most vulnerable part, in his opinion, of the front,” says the message, published this morning. But “it did not achieve its goal, it was not successful,” added the department headed by Sergei Shoigu. In the message they attach a video, supposedly of the attack, in which Ukrainian armored vehicles face heavy artillery.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has not confirmed that the attack took place. In its daily war report, the Ukrainian General Staff only states that there has been fighting in the Donetsk and Lugansk oblasts. Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikoz posted a message on Twitter including part of the song’s lyrics. Enjoy the silence from Depeche Mode: “Words are very unnecessary / they can only hurt,” says the lyrics, which are accompanied by a video of several Ukrainian soldiers putting their index fingers to their mouths to command silence. However, his message was published several hours before the Russian statement.

Kiev has said for months that it is preparing a full-scale counteroffensive against Moscow forces to retake territory lost since Russia launched its military operation in February 2022. Much of Donetsk has been controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014. It is one of the four Ukrainian territories that Russia annexed last September, along with Lugansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson.

On the other side of the border, Russian authorities claimed to have repelled an incursion by Ukrainian fighters into the town of Novaya Tavolzhanka on Sunday. The governor of the Russian region of Belgorod, Viacheslav Gladkov, reported on Telegram the fighting in the area, the scene in recent days of Ukrainian bombing. (AFP)