Kyiv has yet to confirm, but Russia says it repelled a “large-scale offensive” by Ukraine in the Donbass, as well as Ukrainian fighters in the Belgorod region.
Ukrainian ‘large-scale offensive’ repelled, says Russia
“On the morning of June 4, the enemy launched a full-scale offensive in five sectors of the front in the southern direction of the Donestk region.” This was indicated by the Russian Ministry of Defense in a press release, without specifying the exact location of the battle. At the time of writing, no immediate confirmation of this operation has been transmitted by kyiv, which has been warning for months of preparing a major counter-offensive.
“The enemy has not achieved its goal, it has not succeeded,” the Russian ministry added, accompanying its announcement with a video showing what is presented as Ukrainian armored vehicles filmed from the air in the process of be destroyed by Russian forces. According to the same source, the Ukrainian army carried out this attack using six mechanized battalions and two tank battalions.
In the Belgorod region, Ukrainian fighters repelled…
On Sunday, fighting also took place in the Russian region of Belgorod, bordering Ukraine, between the Russian army and pro-Ukrainian Russian fighters, according to the regional governor. The Russian army claimed to have repelled a “sabotage group made up of Ukrainian terrorists” who were trying to cross the border. “The enemy was hit by our artillery. They dispersed and retreated,” the army wrote in a statement.
The fighting follows an incursion by pro-Ukrainian forces into the Belgorod region last month, which forced Moscow to use its artillery and air force on its own soil. The border violation was claimed by anti-Kremlin Russian nationalist groups. Villages near the border have been heavily shelled by Ukraine for a week, forcing thousands of people to flee to Belgorod, the region’s major city. Ukraine has never claimed responsibility for the attacks on Russian soil, but presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak said on Sunday that the situation in the border areas “should be seen as Russia’s future”.
Captured Russian prisoners
The fighting broke out in the border village of Novaya Tavoljanka, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram. These aggressors, whom he described as Russian fighters engaged on the side of kyiv, would have captured prisoners and offered an exchange.
One of these pro-Ukrainian groups, the “Freedom Legion for Russia” has ensured that it transfers the prisoners it holds to the Ukrainian authorities, which regularly organize prisoner exchanges with the Russian forces. This is the first time that a Russian official has admitted that Russian fighters have been captured on Russian territory itself, after more than 15 months of fighting on Ukrainian territory.
Two civilians and a girl killed, five children injured
For several days, fighting has intensified in the region. Ukrainian authorities said Russian fire killed two civilian women, 62 and 74, in the border town of Vovchansk on Sunday. Near the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, 300 kilometers southwest of Belgorod, the body of a two-year-old girl was also removed from the rubble of a building hit by Russian bombardment in a residential area. Her mother was still in intensive care on Sunday evening.
Among the 22 people injured in the strike according to the authorities, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that there were five children. In his daily address to the country, he said three boys aged six, eleven and fifteen were in hospital in “serious condition”. “Many of them could have become scholars, artists, sports champions and contributed to the history of Ukraine. They were victims of missiles and enemy hatred,” he said. tweeted in reference to the 500 dead Ukrainian children counted by the country since the beginning of the conflict.