Zelensky confirmed that Ukraine intends to carry out a “counter-offensive”. On Saturday June 10, during a press conference, the Ukrainian president gave indications on the policy pursued by kyiv. “Counter-offensive and defensive actions are taking place in Ukraine,” he said, “we have to trust our military and I trust them.” However, the president assures that he does not want to give more indications on the military strategy carried out in the coming days.
On Monday evening, Volodymyr Zelensky assured that the ongoing offensive against Russian troops was “progressing”. “The fighting is tough, but we are making progress,” the Ukrainian president said in his daily web address, welcoming the return of the Ukrainian flag to villages in the “newly liberated territories.”
For starters, Ukraine first announced the recapture of three villages in the eastern region of Donetsk on Sunday, the first territorial gains achieved following the “counter-offensive actions” mentioned the day before by President Zelensky. This Monday, the Deputy Minister of Defense, Ganna Malyar, mentioned a total of seven localities taken over in the Zaporizhja region.
“The area of ??the territory returned to our control amounts to 90 square kilometers,” Malyar said. On Monday afternoon, the Ukrainian army also claimed to have advanced from 250 to 700 meters in the Bakhmout region.
On Sunday, three people were killed and at least 23 others injured in Russian fire on civilians evacuated, including in boats, from flooded areas in southern Ukrainian territory due to the destruction of a dam at the start of the month. week, local authorities said. On the Eastern Front, “the glorious soldiers of the 68th Brigade…liberated the locality of Blagodatné”, which had less than 1,000 inhabitants before the war, the Ukrainian ground forces claimed. All accompanied by a video showing soldiers with a Ukrainian flag in a destroyed building.
The Ukrainians said they captured two Russian soldiers and pro-Russian separatist fighters there. Less than three hours later, the Ukrainian border guard service assured that a second village, that of Neskutchne, in the same region of Donetsk, was in turn “again under the Ukrainian flag”.
And, in the evening, the Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister, Ganna Maliar, announced that a third small town, Makarivka, near Blagodatné, had fallen into the hands of troops from Kiev. “I am grateful to our soldiers for this day […]. THANKS ! Thank you for every step, for every fight, for every occupier destroyed! Mr. Zelensky launched in his daily message.
According to Russia, a second element of counter-offensive could have taken place near the Black Sea this Sunday, June 11. The Russian military claims to have repelled a Ukrainian remote-controlled boat attack on one of its warships which was patrolling this sea, near two gas pipelines carrying Russian hydrocarbons to Turkey.
“Ukrainian Armed Forces unsuccessfully attempted to attack with the help of six high-speed unmanned boats the Black Sea Fleet vessel Priazovye,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram. According to him, this attack took place on the night of Saturday to Sunday while the Russian ship was carrying out its mission “to provide security along the routes of the Turkish Stream and Blue Stream gas pipelines in the southeastern part of the Black Sea. “.
These two pipes are used to transport Russian gas to Turkey. According to the Russian ministry, the ship managed to destroy all Ukrainian ships and suffered no damage. Russia had previously reported a similar attack on May 24, when the patrol vessel Ivan Khours was attacked in the Black Sea by remote-controlled launches, in Turkey’s exclusive economic zone. According to Moscow, during this attack and that of June 11, an American RQ-4B reconnaissance drone “carried out scouting in the airspace of the central part of the Black Sea”.
Several incidents involving Russian warships or aircraft have occurred in the Black Sea since the start of the offensive in Ukraine launched on February 24, 2022. The area is also used for the export of Ukrainian cereals, a crucial supply for countries from Africa and Asia, thanks to a sponsorship agreement between the UN and Turkey.
