The Ukrainian authorities, whose counter-offensive has been awaited for months, did not respond to the announcement made by Russia on Monday.
Has the time for the Ukrainian army’s counter-offensive come? The question has already arisen several times since the spring, and it resurfaces on Monday June 5: the Russian Ministry of Defense says it has postponed a Sunday morning “large-scale offensive” in Donbass, one of the occupied regions of eastern Ukraine. But local pro-Russian officials, as well as military bloggers supporting Moscow, describe an attack still in progress, larger than announced. On Monday, Ukraine confirmed conducting “offensive action” in certain sectors of the front, claiming gains near the devastated city of Bakhmout in the East, while minimizing the scale of these attacks evoked by Moscow. What do we know about what is happening on this sector of the Eastern Front? Franceinfo summarizes the situation for you.
>> Follow the news in Ukraine in our direct
Russia says it repelled tank offensive
The Russian Defense Minister was the first to mention the events. Sunday morning, “the enemy launched a large-scale offensive in five sectors of the front in the direction of the south of the Donetsk region”say the military authorities in a statement on Telegram, without making any explicit link with the counter-offensive announced by kyiv several months ago.
The Russian Ministry of Defense does not provide a more precise location of the incident. But he claims a victory: “The enemy has not achieved his goal” to break through the Russian defenses, writes the ministry, which claims to have killed 250 Ukrainian soldiers and destroyed 16 tanks, 21 armored vehicles and three infantry vehicles. In support of this assertion, he broadcasts a video supposed to show the bombardment of Ukrainian vehicles but whose authenticity and context are difficult to verify.
The message also claims that the commander of Russian operations in Ukraine, Valery Gerasimov, was during the assault “at one of the forward command and control posts” of the target area. To read the message, the Ukrainian offensive seems to have stopped there.
Other voices on the Russian side say the attack continues
Since this Russian communication on Monday morning, other sources have painted a more complex picture of the situation. The Institute for the Study of War, an American think tank, thus reports Ukrainian advances in several localities in the south of the Donetsk region on Sunday, claiming to rely on anonymous Russian sources, and without it being possible to establish whether the areas mentioned correspond to those mentioned by Moscow.
Quoted by the Russian agency Tass, two local leaders spoke in particular of the situation in an area on the edge of the regions of Zaporijjia and Donetsk, painting a more contrasting picture. According to an adviser to the head of the Donetsk region separatists, Yan Gagin, the Ukrainian attack was “neutralized” but she continues to “firing on Russian positions” and gather strength. “Fighting continues to the east of the area attacked yesterday [dimanche]” And “an artillery battle is underway”told Tass the leader of a pro-Russian group in the Zaporizhia region, Vladimir Rogov. “Our army holds back the assault”, he assured Monday at midday on his Telegram channel, also reporting bombings behind the front. Earlier, he analyzed these Ukrainian attacks as a way of “probe the line of defense” Russian in preparation for a larger scale offensive.
“The situation in Novodonets’ke and in the east towards Velyka Novossilka is difficult – the enemy, having sensed our weak points, is stepping up its efforts”writes for his part Alexandr Khodakovski, commander of a battalion of pro-Russian volunteers in the Donestk region, Monday on Telegram.
The situation on this part of the front, in the south of the Donetsk region, is also commented on by several very popular Russian military bloggers. Former separatist leader Igor Girkin, often critical of the conduct of the Russian invasion, said on Telegram on Monday that “the forehead was not pierced” but that the Ukrainian army has gained ground and “has not yet fully used its main strengths” and could target other points simultaneously. “The attack is much more serious than yesterday”affirms for its part WarGonzo, another influential pro-Russian channel for analyzing the conflict, which evokes a Ukrainian advance “at least two kilometers”. These assertions show a more moderate optimism than that of the Kremlin but come from unofficial sources.
Ukraine downplays and remains unclear on its plans
On Monday morning, a communication organ of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense indirectly denied the announcement of a repelled offensive: “The Russian occupation forces are stepping up their information and psychological operations”he wrote on Telegram, accusing Russia of spreading false information and “old videos and photos” to make people believe in Ukrainian losses.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar confirmed on Telegram on Monday that she was carrying out “offensive action” in certain sectors of the front, claiming “hit” near the devastated city of Bakhmout in the east, “epicenter of hostilities”, while downplaying the scale of those attacks that Moscow claimed to have repelled. “Why are the Russians actively spreading information about a counter-offensive? Because they need to divert attention from the defeat in the direction of Bakhmout,” she believes.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky contented himself with a generic message of encouragement on Twitter : “Russian terrorism must be defeated, every day and night, in every region of Ukraine.” The Ukrainian authorities have always kept the preparations for their operations secret. On Sunday, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov recalled the need to remain silent in a very noticed clip and a message quoting the group Depeche Mode.
Fighting continues on several other fronts
On Monday, the leader of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigojine, claimed that Ukrainian troops had retaken part of Berkhivka, a locality a few kilometers north of Bakhmout, thus progressing in their attempt to encircle the city taken by the army. Russian in May. The leader of the pro-Russian separatists of the Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, spoke of a situation “difficult but controlled” on the flanks of the city, according to the terms of the Russian agency Ria Novosti. kyiv has also kept silent about the situation in this area.
On Sunday, Russia once again announced that it had pushed back pro-Ukrainian Russian fighters in the Belgorod region, bordering northeastern Ukraine. One of these groups claimed, with video support, to have captured prisoners in Russian territory, which would be a first. Ukraine denies any link with these attacks targeting the Russian border region. But the multiplication of points of confrontation along the front line underlines that the“large-scale offensive” mentioned Monday morning by Moscow, if it took place, probably represents only one operation among others in the counter-offensive that kyiv has been preparing for months.