Within the strategy of confusion sponsored by Kiev for weeks, the Ukrainian authorities tried on Monday to mitigate the scope of the offensive launched by their troops in various sectors of the Donetsk front, while it was Russia that announced the start of the expected counteroffensive Ukrainian in the southeast of the country. Moscow said it is facing a “large-scale” operation involving at least 8 battalions and where the famous Leopard tanks of German origin are already being used.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar limited herself to saying that the onslaught, which has spread to various sectors of the front, is part “of the continued defense that we started on February 24, 2022 (when Moscow launched the invasion of Ukraine) which includes counter-offensive actions”.

“That is why we are going on the offensive in some areas,” he added.

Maliar indicated that the main objective of the Ukrainian soldiers is the city of Bakhmut, in Donetsk, which was captured a few weeks ago by Wagner’s paramilitaries in a victory that experts already defined as pyrrhic and ephemeral given the pressure exerted by the military. of Kiev on the flanks of the city.

Wagner’s own boss, Yevgeny Prighozin, acknowledged on social networks that a part of the military who had replaced their acolytes in Bakhmut had abandoned an area to the north of that town that has passed into Ukrainian hands and strongly asked that it be Send reinforcements to the area. “The troops are fleeing. It’s a disgrace,” he said in his address.

Prighozin took the opportunity to lash out for the umpteenth time against political rivals such as Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, demanding that he go “to the front” even with an army “armed with guns” to try to stop the Ukrainians and otherwise ” die like a hero.”

In addition to Bakhmut, several Russian media and the Institute for the Study of War have reported that local forces have managed to break through the Russian front line around Velyka Novosilka, not far from the troubled village of Vuhledar on the southern tip of Donetsk. which connects with the province of Zaporizhia, a region that was anticipated as a key scene of the Ukrainian counter-offensive.

Russian journalists, including those close to the Kremlin, admitted that the Ukrainian units supported by the aforementioned Leopards have managed to get close to the small village of Novodonetskoye.

One of the Russian information channels, Wargonzo, indicated that the fighting in Velyka Novosilka began at 4 in the morning and dozens of armored vehicles participated in the attack. “There is a very tough fight underway,” wrote the Telegram channel, which on Sunday had already reported on a Ukrainian attempt in the same sector, albeit on a much smaller scale. “The situation is critical,” he added.

The route that starts from Velyka Novosilka towards the south of the Ukrainian coast connects directly with cities occupied by Russian forces such as Mariupol and Berdyansk. Any Ukrainian advance in that area would be a major blow to Moscow, which could see its entire military strategy in eastern Ukraine threatened and its supply lines between Russia and the Crimean peninsula, which it has controlled since 2014, put in jeopardy.

A well-known pro-Russian officer, Alexander Khodakovsky, a former member of the Ukrainian secret services who moved to Moscow in 2014 and now commands the so-called Vostok Battalion, explained that the situation in that sector “is difficult.”

“The enemy has understood where our weak points are and is intensifying its efforts. For the first time we have seen the Leopards. Smelling success, the enemy will launch additional forces into the battle. Only here we have counted up to 30 armored vehicles,” he said.

Early in the morning, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, had announced the hypothetical failure of all Ukrainian efforts in five different sectors of the southern front.

“The enemy’s objective was to break through our defenses in what they thought was the most vulnerable sector of the front. It was unsuccessful. The losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine amounted to more than 250 personnel (soldiers), 16 tanks” and two dozen more than armored vehicles, specified the representatives of the regime of Vladimir Putin.

Moscow released a video allegedly showing several Ukrainian armored vehicles being hit by artillery fire.

The clashes in the southeast of Ukraine added to the intensification of the fighting in the Russian province of Belgorod, where groups opposed to President Putin once again attacked the border, in an unexpected twist on the invasion sponsored by Moscow in February of the year past, which has now moved to its own geography.

The Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) and the Free Russian Legion have been joined by the so-called Polish Volunteer Corps, a unit of volunteers from that country, which this Sunday admitted its participation in that operation.

Belgorod officials said one of the plants that generate electricity in the area has been attacked overnight and is being consumed by a violent fire.

For Igor Girking, one of the Russian militants who led the 2014 Moscow-sponsored uprising in Donbas, this operation was the debut of the Ukrainian plan and is intended to divert Moscow’s attention.

The rebel Russian formations showed on Sunday a video in which they exhibited a dozen alleged soldiers loyal to Moscow that they said they had captured and offered to hand them over to the authorities of that country, although this offer was not finally accepted by the representatives of the authorities. local.

“We just want to talk to you (reference to the governor of Belgorod) about the future of Russia and the unnecessary civil war now being waged in Belgorod,” Denis Kapustin, the RDK leader, had proclaimed.

One of President Volodimir Zelensky’s advisers, Mikhailo Podolyak, opined in a tweet that the chaotic images that are coming from Shebekino – the main city of Belgorod that the rebels are trying to capture – should be considered as a preview of what “the future will be like”. From Russia”. “It is the end of Putin’s era of stability,” added the Ukrainian representative.

The assault by the uniformed opposition and the Ukrainian army – whose artillery and air support is proving vital – began on May 22 and has intensified in recent days.

The governor of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, has admitted that more than 4,000 people have already fled Shebekino, but several Russian media say the stampede has been almost general, describing the town that used to host up to 40,000 residents as a “ghost” town. On Saturday, Gladkov himself said that five civilians had been killed and 16 wounded in the shelling that hit the area.

“The Kremlin cannot do anything to prevent Belgorod from becoming the same constant battlefield that Donbas has been” in recent years, the aforementioned Igor Girking said on his Telegram channel.

“The enemy has enough units to support the newly formed front line without much effort, without touching the shock reserves ready to rush into the Azov Sea. The population is shocked and complaining,” Girking wrote.

The war struggle was accompanied by sabotage actions in various Russian cities and the hacking of that country’s television in various regions, which suddenly began to show a video of a fake Putin in which he declared martial law and clarified that the Ukrainian army it had invaded the Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk provinces.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project