KIEV, June 10 (Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that Ukrainian counter-offensive operations were underway, but he remained mum on details, beyond sending a message to the Kremlin that its top generals are very animated.
Zelensky shrugged at a news conference in Kiev when asked to comment on remarks by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday that Ukrainian forces had begun their much-vaunted counter-offensive.
“Defensive and counter-offensive actions are taking place in Ukraine, but I am not going to say in detail what phase they are in,” he said, citing the top Ukrainian military commanders by name.
“Everyone is in a good mood. Pass it on to Putin,” he said with a smile alongside visiting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Ukraine has been saying for months that it plans to carry out a major counter-offensive to retake Russian-occupied tracts of land in the south and east, but it is applying strict operational silence and has denied that the main operation has started for now.
Russia claims Ukraine launched a major offensive this week, but kyiv’s forces failed to break through its defenses and suffered heavy casualties. The paucity of independent information from the front lines has made it difficult to assess the state of the fighting.
The British Ministry of Defense said that Ukraine carried out major operations in several parts of the east and south of the country in the last 48 hours, and that Russian defenses had been breached at some points.
“In some areas, it is likely that the Ukrainian forces have made good progress and penetrated the front line of the Russian defences. In others, the Ukrainian advance has been slower,” said the report, which described the performance of the Russian army as unequal.
“It is likely that some (Russian) units are conducting credible maneuver defense operations, while others have withdrawn in some disarray, amid increasing reports of Russian casualties as they withdraw through their own minefields,” he said.
(Reporting by Tom Balmforth and Felix Hoske; Spanish editing by Carlos Serrano)
Source: Ambito
