Ukrainian forces have recaptured a village in the country’s southern Zapororizhzhia region, a Russian installed official said Sunday, in one of Ukraine’s first gains since it launched a counteroffensive earlier this month.
Vladimir Rogov, a member of the military-civilian administration for the Russian-occupied areas of Zaporizhzhia, said in a Telegram post that the settlement of Piatykhatky was under Ukrainian operational control after a series of “wave attacks” by the Ukrainian military, which, “despite the colossal losses, yielded a result.”
Ukrainian forces had entrenched themselves there while coming under fire from Russian artillery, he said. He said that Russian intelligence revealed that Ukraine had been reinforcing the area with infantry and combat trucks, and that its forces would likely move westward to the village of Zherebyanki, to avoid encirclement by Russian forces.
NBC News could not verify his claims, and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Both Russia and Ukraine endured heavy losses over the weekend as Ukraine made “small advances,” according to an intelligence update from Britain’s Defense Ministry.
It said that Russian losses were likely the highest since the peak of the battle for Bakhmut in March. Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine, was the scene of some the fiercest fighting of the war. Russia claimed victory there last month, but battles continue in and around the city.
Zaporizhzhia is one of four partly occupied regions illegally annexed by the Kremlin, and has long been seen as the heart of a Ukrainian counteroffensive, despite attempts from Kyiv to hide its intentions by launching multiple attacks across front lines.
In an interview Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said news from the front lines was “generally positive, but it’s very difficult,” adding that the slow supply of new Western weapons, such as fighter jets, was helping Russia’s defensive effort.
He added that troops were meeting “tough resistance” from Russia, because “for Russia to lose this campaign to Ukraine, I would say, actually means losing the war,” Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine said last week it had regained control of about 38 square miles of territory in just over a week, recapturing a string of villages in the Donetsk region to the east, but had not achieved a significant military breakthrough.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, insisted on Friday that Ukraine’s counteroffensive had “no chance.” Speaking at the St. Petersburg economic forum, Putin said that Ukraine had lost “about 30% of the arms supplied by the West without any success,” though he did not provide any evidence for this claim.
NBC News could not verify his remark, but the launch of the counteroffensive has seen the battlefield debut of Western-supplied armored vehicles, including German Leopard tanks and American-made Bradley fighting vehicles.
In a seeming admission that the war would not end soon, Putin told the forum that “additional funds were needed to strengthen defense and security, to purchase weapons.”
His tone was matched by that of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who warned separately on Thursday that Russia was prepared for a long war, and that fighting would not end soon.
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