Ukrainian service members ride a BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle near the front line in the newly liberated village Neskuchne in Donetsk region, Ukraine, on June 13.STRINGER/Reuters
Russia announced plans on Thursday to stage elections in occupied parts of Ukraine in just three months, Moscow’s latest bid to signal it is in control even as a Ukrainian counteroffensive has pushed its forces back in some areas.
Ukraine’s military said on Thursday it had regained control of over 100 square km (38 square miles) of territory in a counteroffensive against Russian forces and Kyiv added Ukraine’s forces had advanced on key sectors of the front line.
Although tougher battles lie ahead, and the land recaptured in just over a week is a fraction of the territory Russia holds in Ukraine, the advances are Kyiv’s biggest in several months.
“We are ready to continue fighting to liberate our territory even with our bare hands,” Brigadier-General Oleksii Hromov told a media briefing. “Over 100 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory was retaken under control”
He confirmed Russian troops that invaded in February 2022 had been forced out of seven settlements in the eastern region of Donetsk and in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia.
The army has advanced by up to 3 km (1.8 miles) near the village of Mala Tokmachka in the Zaporizhzhia sector and by up to 7 km near a village south of Velyka Novosilka in the Donetsk sector, he said.
The military said its forces had also advanced in the Donetsk region around the devastated Russian-held city of Bakhmut in the east and near the city of Vuhledar further south. But fighting, he said, was intense.
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“Our units and troops are moving forwards in the face of fierce fighting, (and) aviation and artillery superiority of the enemy,” Valeryi Shershen, a spokesperson for the Tavria military sector of southern Ukraine, told Ukrainian television.
Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said Ukrainian forces were engaged in offensive and defensive actions in various areas, with Russian forces maintaining large numbers in the east and bringing in reserves from elsewhere.
Near Bakhmut, she said, Ukrainian troops were pressing their advances around villages north and northwest of the city “and progress has been made”.
Maliar also noted advances of nearly 1 km by Ukrainian forces in two other areas further south near the port cities of Berdyansk and Mariupol on the Sea of Azov.
She said Ukrainian troops were facing strong resistance, including intensified Russian missile and air strikes and artillery and mortar attacks.
Reuters could not verify the battlefield situation. Russia has not officially acknowledged the Ukrainian advances, and says Ukrainian troops have suffered heavy casualties, but Reuters has confirmed the liberation of at least two villages.
Russia launched heavy air strikes as the counteroffensive was being prepared, and has carried out more air attacks since it began.
“The only thing that changes is the priority of the targets, the time of the strike and the intensity, accordingly,” air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat told a separate briefing.
He said air strikes on the capital Kyiv in May were intended partly to cause panic and portray Russian weapons as superior to those provided by Ukraine’s NATO allies.
Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted this week that Moscow’s goals in Ukraine remain unchanged despite the Ukrainian counteroffensive. He claimed that Russian forces were inflicting 10 times more casualties on Ukrainians than they were enduring.
Russia’s announcement of a plan for elections in occupied territory was the latest effort by Moscow to convey that the situation was stable.
Russia’s TASS state news agency quoted election chief Ella Pamfilova as saying that both the Defence Ministry and the Federal Security Service (FSB) had concluded that it would be possible to hold the votes in September.
Russia proclaimed its annexation of four Ukrainian provinces last year, although it does not fully control any of them and does not hold the main population centres of two.
Kyiv says any elections staged by Russians on Ukrainian territory would be invalid and illegal.
The big test of Ukraine’s offensive still lies ahead. Russia has had months to prepare its defences. Ukrainian troops have yet to reach the heaviest Russian defensive fortifications, which are set back from the front line.
Kyiv is believed to have prepared an attack force of around 12 brigades of thousands of soldiers each, most using newly arrived Western armoured vehicles. Only a fraction of them have been engaged so far.
Russia, for its part, has released images of Western tanks and armoured vehicles it says it has destroyed or captured.
In Brussels, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin presided over the latest meeting of a group of around 50 countries, set up by Washington to coordinate donations of Western arms to Ukraine.
“I ask that the members of this contact group continue to dig deep to provide Ukraine with the air defence assets and munitions that it so urgently needs to protect its citizens,” Austin said.