Ukraine launches multiple attacks along front line amid claims counter-offensive has begun
Ukrainian forces mounted attacks at several points along the front line in a sign that Kyiv was stepping up a long-awaited counter offensive.
Ukraine did not directly comment on the reports, but the general in command of its ground forces said they “continue to move forward”.
The reported assaults follow weeks of probing attacks, including raids and drone strikes on Russia itself, designed to stretch Moscow’s defences ahead of the offensive.
But Western officials told The Economist that the attacks “mark the start of the offensive”, adding that Russia’s defensive lines “could be more fragile than thought”.
Russian sources also reported seeing Western-supplied Leopard tanks in the battlefield, suggesting Nato-trained forces had joined the front lines for the first time.
The Russian ministry of defence claimed to have defeated a “large-scale” attack in the “southern Donetsk direction”.
“The enemy’s goal was to break through our defences in the most vulnerable, in its opinion, sector of the front,” Maj Gen Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the ministry, said. “The enemy did not achieve its tasks. It had no success.”
Video footage it released alongside the statement was geolocated to countryside to the west of Velyka Novosilka.
Maj Gen Konashenkov said 250 Ukrainian personnel were killed, and 16 Ukrainian tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles and 21 armoured combat vehicles were destroyed. The claim could not be immediately confirmed.
Several well-connected Russian war bloggers reported more serious enemy gains than admitted by the ministry of defence.
Alexander Khodakovsky, a senior commander in the Russian-run Donetsk People’s Republic, reported a subsequent attack east of the town that he said caught the Russian by surprise and “put us in a difficult position”.
“To the left of Vuhledar, the enemy, with limited forces, using up to ten armoured vehicles, went on the offensive in the direction of Zolota Nyva and Novodonetskoye. So far he has been successful,” he wrote on Telegram on Monday morning.
“In the second half of the night [the enemy] began to make movements creating the impression he would continue the pressure on the site of yesterday’s breakthrough near Veliko Novosilka,” he added.
“Aerial reconnaissance spotted the momentum of up to 30 armoured vehicles but due to limited capabilities could not establish the ‘ascent’ point. As a result the strike group…reached the line of attack almost unnoticed.”
Ukraine’s defence ministry denied any knowledge of such a battle.
“We do not have such information and we do not comment on any kind of fake,” a spokesman for the Ukrainian armed forces’ general staff told Reuters.
Kyiv has a policy of refusing to talk about operations until they are over, and has urged civilians not to talk about the offensive.
Simultaneous Ukrainian attacks were reported near Vuhledar, Bakhmut, and across the border into Russia’s Belgorod region. The Telegraph could not immediately confirm the reports.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary company that claimed credit for capturing Bakhmut last month, said the regular army had lost part of the town of Berkhivka, also to the city’s nort
Oleksandr Syrsky, commander of Ukrainian ground forces, confirmed in a brief Telegram post that Ukrainian offensive operations continued near Bakhmut but did not comment on other battles.
“The defence forces are working. We continue to move forward,” he wrote under footage of what he said were tanks from Ukraine’s 3rd Separate Assault Brigade assaulting Russian positions.
Mr Khodakovsky, a former Ukrainian special forces officer who switched sides during the Russian invasion in 2014, also said Western-built main battle tanks had been seen in battle for the first time.
“The situation in Novodonetskoye and to the left of Veliko Novosilka is difficult - the enemy, pushing at our weak spots, is increasing his efforts. For the first time in our tactical area we have seen Leopards,” he wrote on Telegram.
Western equipment like Leopard tanks have been reserved for Nato-trained brigades thought to be preparing for a counter-attack.
