Russia has claimed to have repelled a “major offensive” in the Donetsk region and to have killed hundreds of Ukrainian troops, but the claims could not be independently verified.
Ukrainian officials made no comment, and have emphasised the need for secrecy about operations in recent days as anticipation grows for a major counteroffensive. Ukrainian military officers have predicted that any such counteroffensive would be preceded and accompanied by feints and diversionary attacks to “shape the battlefield” and cause as much confusion as possible in Russian ranks.
The defence ministry in Moscow said Ukraine had attacked with six mechanised and two tank battalions.
“On the morning of June 4, the enemy launched a large-scale offensive in five sectors of the front in the South Donetsk direction,” the ministry said in a statement posted on the Telegram messaging app at 1:30 am Moscow time.
“The enemy’s goal was to break through our defences in the most vulnerable, in its opinion, sector of the front,” it said. “The enemy did not achieve its tasks, it had no success.”
The ministry claimed that 250 Ukrainian troops had been killed, and 16 tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles and 21 armoured personnel carriers destroyed.
Videos of combat posted online showed what were purported to be Ukrainian armoured cars blowing up in fields near Velyka Novosilka, 60 miles west of Donetsk city, but it was impossible to tell from the videos when they were taken and what the outcome of the battle was.
The daily update from the Ukrainian general staff on Sunday made no mention of a major offensive in Donetsk but did report 29 clashes in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and 15 airstrikes on enemy troops across the country.
Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksiy Reznikov posted a message on Twitter on Sunday, quoting from a song by Depeche Mode, Enjoy the Silence.
“Words are very unnecessary, they can only do harm,” the tweet said.
Read more of Julian Borger’s report here: Russia claims to have fought off ‘major Ukrainian offensive’ in Donetsk
