Kyiv – Russia and Ukraine are suffering high military casualties as Ukraine battles to dislodge Kremlin forces from occupied areas at the start of its counteroffensive, British officials said on Sunday.
Russian casualties are likely at their highest since the peak of the Battle of Bakhmut in March, British military officials said in their regular assessment.
According to British intelligence, the heaviest fighting was concentrated in the southeastern province of Zaporizhzhia, around Bakhmut and further west in Donetsk province in eastern Ukraine. While the update reported that Ukraine was on the offensive in these areas and had “made small advances,” it said Russian forces were conducting “relatively effective defensive operations” in southern Ukraine.
Ukraine’s military said in a regular update Sunday morning that in the past 24 hours Russia has carried out 43 airstrikes, four missile strikes and 51 attacks from multiple rocket launchers. According to the General Staff’s statement, Russia continues to focus its efforts on offensive operations in the industrial east of Ukraine, concentrating attacks around Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Marinka and Lyman in Donetsk province. , with 26 clashes.
Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said two civilians had been killed and three others injured in the past day.
Ukrainian officials said Russian forces also launched airstrikes on other areas in the east and south of the country.
One civilian was killed and four others injured in Kherson province as a result of Russian attacks, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said, while Zaporizhzhia regional governor Yurii Malashko said one person was injured during the Russian attacks that hit 20 settlements in the province.
Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesman for the regional government of the southwestern province of Odessa, said Ukrainian forces had destroyed a “very important” ammunition dump near the Russian-occupied port city of Henichesk in the neighboring province of Kherson.
“Our armed forces delivered a good blow in the morning,” Bratchuk said in a video message Sunday morning, posted on his Telegram channel.
Western analysts and military officials have warned that Ukraine’s counteroffensive aimed at dislodging Kremlin forces from occupied areas, using advanced Western-supplied weapons in attacks along the frontline than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles), could last a long time.
A group of African leaders have carried out a so-called ‘peace mission’ in Ukraine and Russia in recent days to try to end their nearly 16-month war, but the visit ended on Saturday with no immediate signs. of progress. .
Meanwhile, the death toll from flooding following the destruction of the Kakhovka dam has risen to 16 in Ukrainian-held territory, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said on Saturday, while Russian officials said 29 people had died in the territories controlled by Moscow.
Massive flooding from the destruction of the dam on June 6 devastated towns along the lower Dnieper in the Kherson region, a front line in the war. Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of having caused the rupture.
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