Ukrainian troops have recaptured 4 villages in the south from Russian occupation, military source tells CNN
The White House said it had seen reports that Ukraine counterattack has begun Against Russian forces in southern Ukraine, said John Kirby, communications coordinator for the National Security Council, but did not want to comment further on specific Ukrainian military activities.
However, Kirby did note that regardless of the scale, scale and scope of the latest counterattack, the Ukrainians “have had an impact on Russia’s military capabilities”.
“Because the Russians had to pull resources from the east just because of reports that the Ukrainians would probably attack more south,” Kirby said. “And so they had to expend certain units…in certain areas to the East of the Donbass, in response to what they believed was clearly a potential threat of an attack. counterattack.”
Kirby also said that Russia “continues to have manpower problems” in Ukraine and is trying to expand the recruitment of fighters inside Russia as well as “drawing in” some conscripts and contract soldiers. their service outside of their time frame.
That’s “because they’re going through manpower challenges – the manpower challenges aren’t any easier than they are dealing with reports of a potential Ukrainian counterattack,” Kirby said. .
Kirby also said that “the idea of continuing violations is not new to Ukrainians.”
“I realize now that what we’re talking about here is the potential for a major counter-attack, as opposed to continuing the offense in a more localized way,” Kirby said. However, he said Ukrainian forces “have been waging war with the Russians inside” Ukraine for quite some time, including in the early months of the war around Kyiv.
“So the fact that they do this is not a new development,” Kirby said.
What Russia is saying: Moscow on Monday acknowledged Kyiv’s counter-offensive in southern Ukraine, but said Ukrainian troops “suffered heavy losses” and “disastrously failed” in their “attempted” offensive.
Ukrainian forces on Monday “tried to attack the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions from three directions,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement, adding, “due to active defense operations.” of the Russian group, units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine suffered heavy losses. “
The ministry said that during the fighting, 26 Ukrainian tanks, 23 infantry fighting vehicles, nine other armored fighting vehicles were destroyed and two Su-25 attack aircraft were shot down.
“Another attempt to target the enemy’s offensive actions has failed miserably,” it concluded.
