WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine says it retakes village in 'first results' of counterattack

Ukraine said on Sunday its troops had made territorial advances on three villages in its southeast, the first liberated settlements it has reported since launching a counter-offensive this past week.

Kyiv's forces posted unverified videos showing soldiers hoisting the Ukrainian flag at a bombed-out building in the village of Blahodatne in Donetsk region and posing with their unit's flag in the adjacent village of Neskuchne.

"We're seeing the first results of the counter-offensive actions, localized results," Valeryi Shershen, spokesperson for Ukraine's "Tavria" military sector, said on television.

Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar later said Ukrainian forces had "deoccupied" Makarivka, the next village to the south, and advanced between 300 and 1,500 metres in two directions on the southern front.

"No positions were lost on the directions where our forces are on the defensive," Maliar added on Telegram.

Reuters was unable to verify battlefield reports.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that a Ukrainian military push was underway, but that it had failed to breach Russian defensive lines and taken heavy casualties.

Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, praised his troops in his nightly video address, but made no reference to the specific areas where the fighting was reported.

"Of course, I am thankful to our soldiers for this day," Zelenskiy said, referring only to the two main sectors of the fighting in the east and the south.

"Each one of our combat brigades, each of our units."

Zelenskiy on Saturday had given his strongest signal yet that Kyiv has launched its long-awaited counterattack to seize back land in the east and south, confirming that "counteroffensive and defensive operations" were taking place.

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Kyiv officials have imposed a strict period of operational silence and urged Ukrainians not to disclose any information that could compromise the operation.

'KICKING THE ENEMY OUT'

With so little information out of Kyiv and scant independent reporting from the front lines, it has been almost impossible to assess the battlefield situation.

The video from Blahodatne showed Ukrainian troops inside a heavily damaged building as artillery rumbled in the distance.

"We're kicking the enemy out from our native lands. It's the warmest feeling there is. Ukraine is going to win, Ukraine above everything," an unidentified soldier said in the video on Facebook.

Russia said at least twice this week that it had repelled attacks close by the nearby settlement of Velyka Novosilka.

The Ukrainian advances follow the breach last week of the Kakhovka dam further west in Kherson region that unleashed floods and prompted rescues of residents from submerged areas.

Ukraine and Russia blame each other for the breach.

The Ukrainian-appointed governor of Kherson region on Sunday said Russian forces had shelled three boats evacuating mainly elderly evacuees to safety, killing three and injuring 10.

Shershen later told a radio interviewer that Russian forces had blown up a smaller hydroelectric dam near the scene of the latest combats in an attempt to disrupt the Ukrainian advance.

"This led to the flooding of both banks of the Mokri Yaly River," he told Ukrainian NV Radio. "This, however, does not affect our counter-offensive actions."

The occupied southeast is seen as a likely priority for Kyiv's forces that may aim to sever Russia's land bridge to the annexed peninsula of Crimea and split Russian forces in half.

Makarikva is around 90 km (55.92 miles) northwest of the city of Mariupol, which lies on the Sea of Azov on the southern rim of the land bridge. Russia captured the major city last year after besieging and bombarding it for several weeks.

Russia has built vast fortifications across occupied territory to prepare for a Ukrainian counterattack using thousands of troops trained and equipped by the West.

Maliar also said Ukrainian forces were continuing assault operations in the east near the devastated city of Bakhmut and had advanced 250 metres near the adjacent Berkhivka Reservoir.

Russia said it captured the city of Bakhmut last month after the bloodiest battle of Russia's February 2022 invasion, but Kyiv has said it has been regaining ground on the city's flanks.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said separately that a motorised infantry brigade had advanced on the front line around the eastern city Avdiivka in recent days and captured a Russian position, but it provided no further details.

** UN nuclear watchdog concerned over water levels at Ukraine plant

The U.N. atomic watchdog said on Sunday that it needs wider access around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant to check "a significant discrepancy" in water level data at the breached Kakhovka dam used for cooling the plant's reactors.

International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi, who is to visit the plant this week, said that measurements the agency received from the inlet of the plant showed that the dam's water levels were stable for about a day over the weekend.

"However, the height is reportedly continuing to fall elsewhere in the huge reservoir, causing a possible difference of about two metres," Grossi said in a statement.

"The height of the water level is a key parameter for the continued operability of the water pumps."

The destruction of the Kakhovka hydropower dam in southern Ukraine last week has flooded towns downstream and forced thousands of people from their homes.

Both the Kakhovka hydropower dam and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant have been occupied by Russia since the early days of its invasion in February 2022.

The water from the reservoir is used to cool the facility's six reactors and spent fuel storage, the IAEA said.

"It is possible that this discrepancy in the measured levels is caused by an isolated body of water separated from the larger body of the reservoir," Gross said in the statement. "But we will only be able to know when we gain access to the thermal power plant."

Grossi said the thermal power plant "plays a key role for the safety and security of the nuclear power plant a few kilometres away," hence the need for access and independent assessment.

The agency has said earlier that the Zaporizhzhia plant can fall back on other water sources when the reservoir's water is no longer available, including a large cooling pond above the reservoir with several months' worth of water.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Four more Ukrainian Leopard 2 tanks destroyed – Moscow

The Russian military has destroyed nine Ukrainian tanks, including four German-made Leopard 2s, as it successfully repelled attempts to advance by Kiev's forces, the Ministry of Defense has claimed.

Over the past 24 hours, Ukraine has “continued fruitless attempts to carry out offensive operations” in Russia’s Zaporozhye Region, in the south of Donetsk People’s Republic and near the city of Artyomovsk, also known as Bakhmut, ministry spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov said during a briefing on Saturday.

In Zaporozhye Region, Russian ground troops, artillery and aviation repelled two attacks by large Ukrainian units boosted by tanks in the area of Yablonevo and Novopokrovka villages, he said.

Two of Kiev’s armored convoys were struck near the settlements of Novodanilovka and Malaya Tokmachka, the spokesman also reported. There were also three smaller Ukrainian attacks in the region, which were also unsuccessful, he added.

Besides the nine tanks, Kiev forces are also down eleven armored personnel carriers, which include five US-supplied Bradley fighting vehicles, 14 armored cars and a French-made Caesar self-propelled howitzer, Konashenkov pointed out.

The Ukrainian military’s losses in terms of manpower during the fresh fighting in Zaporozhye Region has reached up to 300 troops, according to the ministry spokesman.

Five attacks were repelled near the city of Artymovsk, which the Russian forces captured from Ukraine in May after months of heavy fighting, he told the briefing. Kiev’s losses in this area over the past 24 hours, he pointed out, included up to 230 personnel, five armored cars and two Soviet-made D-30 howitzers.

According to Konashenkov, around 60 of Kiev’s soldiers were neutralized in the area of Krasny Liman, a Ukrainian-held town in the Donetsk Peoples Republic. An APC and several howitzers, including a Polish-made Krab self-propelled gun were also destroyed, he said.

** Kiev fails in attempt to attack Russian naval ship protecting Black Sea gas pipelines

The Kiev regime made an unsuccessful attempt with surface drones to attack the Black Sea Fleet’s ship Priazovye on a mission to protect the Turkish Stream and Blue Stream gas pipelines in the southeastern portion of the Black Sea, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Sunday.

"Today, at about 1:30 p.m. Moscow time, Ukrainian armed formations made an unsuccessful attempt with six fast-speed unmanned sea boats to attack the Black Sea Fleet’s ship Priazovye accomplishing the objective of monitoring the situation and providing security along the routes of the Turkish Stream and Blue Stream gas pipelines in the southeastern portion of the Black Sea. In repulsing the attack, all the boats were destroyed from the Russian naval ship’s standard weapons 300 km southeast of Sevastopol," the ministry said in a statement.

The Black Sea Fleet’s ship Priazovye continues accomplishing assigned missions after Ukraine’s attempted attack, with no casualties reported among the Russian personnel, the ministry said.

"There are no casualties. The ship has not sustained any damage. The Black Sea Fleet’s ship Priazovye continues accomplishing assigned missions," the ministry said in a statement.

A US RQ-4B Global Hawk strategic remotely-piloted surveillance aircraft conducted reconnaissance in the airspace over the central part of the Black sea during Ukraine’s attempted attack, as in other previous cases, the ministry said.

Previously, the Kiev regime carried out an attack with three surface drones on May 24 targeting the Black Sea Fleet’s ship Ivan Khurs that was providing security for the Turkish Stream and Blue Stream gas pipelines in Turkey’s exclusive economic zone. All of the Ukrainian surface drones were destroyed by the Russian naval ship’s standard weapons. The personnel of the Russian surveillance ship who repulsed the attack by Ukrainian surface drones in the waters of the Bosporus Strait were recommended for combat state awards.

** West has zero chances to bring Russia to its knees, says top senator

The months that have passed since the start of the special military operation in Ukraine have shown that the West has zero chances to crush Russia and bring it to its knees, Chairwoman of the Federation Council (the upper house of Russia’s parliament) Valentina Matviyenko said on Sunday.

"If we speak about our actions inside the country, the main conclusion is perfectly clear: Russia must be strong. Moreover, it must be strong in all respects, technologically, economically, socially and morally and, what is especially important today, militarily and in the security sphere," the top senator said on her blog on the eve of Russia Day celebrated on June 12.

"Today, 15 months after the start of the special military operation, it is perfectly clear that there are zero chances to crush our country and bring it to its knees. Russia’s victory in the conflict around Ukraine is inevitable," Matviyenko stressed.

The Russian authorities have managed within the shortest time possible to adapt the state, society and the economy to new realities, she pointed out.

"They have managed to do this without deteriorating the quality of people’s life, without any flip-flopping in the public and political sphere, without even the slightest restrictions of citizens’ rights and freedoms. Without abrupt changes in economic management, although there were plenty of calls for that," the top senator said.

"Of course, we are fully aware that we will have to face new serious challenges and we need to address them fully prepared, which will, undoubtedly, require a new quality of interaction between the authorities and society. We will ensure this because over the thirty years of Russia’s newest history we have put a reliable and strong foundation under our state and public system," Matviyenko stressed.

Reuters/RT/Tass