UKRAINE has launched major offensive operations in southern and eastern Ukraine.
Kyiv has boasted that the "countdown has begun" for Russia after Vladimir Putin faces the humiliating Wagner Group rebellion.
The Ministry of Defence said Ukrainian soldiers are making steady progress in key areas as they use the experiences from the first two weeks of the counteroffensive to perfect their tactics.
MoD said in a tweet: "In Luhansk Oblast, Russian forces have made their own significant effort to launch an attack in the Serebryanka Forest near Kremina.
"This probably reflects continued Russian senior leadership orders to go on the offensive whenever possible.
"Russia has made some small gains, but Ukrainian forces have prevented a breakthrough."
read more in ukraine
Putin’s cronies are eating each other – but it may not stop war in Ukraine
Ukraine kamikaze drones attack Russian military base just miles from Kremlin
Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said in a post on Telegram that troops launched an offensive in a number of locations in eastern Ukraine including Orikhovo-Vasylivka, Bakhmut, Bohdanivka, Yagidne, Klishchiivka, and Kurdyumivka.
She added that Russian forces carried out airstrikes in Avdiyiv and Shakhtar while heavy fighting continues in the south of the country.
She notes that Moscow has suffered "significant lossesin personnel, weapons and equipment."
It comes as a Russian air strike in Kyiv in the early hours of Saturday left five people dead.
Most read in The Sun
Body found in mountains where Brit actor vanished five months ago on hike
Declan Donnelly & Harry Maguire lead celebs at showbiz wedding in Majorca
Holly Willoughby shakes off Schofield saga with 12-hourbender at Glastonbury
Katie Price's mum says Peter Andre used her to become rich and famous
The city's mayor said that the bodies of two victims were uncovered under the rubble in the Solomyan district on Sunday, bringing the total death toll of the attack to five.
Speaking on state television on Sunday, Vladimir Putin said he was in constant contact with the defence ministry and that the country remained confident in realising its plans related to the conflict in Ukraine.
The Russian leader has faced the biggest threat in his regime in decades after Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin staged an open rebellion and sent his mercenary group marching on Moscow.
In a dramatic escalation, Wagner troops were ordered to turn back to their bases to "avoid bloodshed" while their leader Prigozhin claimed he was retreating to Belarus.
Kremlin insisted they had dropped all criminal charges against him – and he and his men were free to leave but details of the deal remain unclear.
But it raises questions about Putin's grip on power – going from blasting Priogzhin for "treason" to then letting him go in an astonishing show of weakness.
Oleksii Danilov, Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council, believes that the collapse of Russia is inevitable and says the "countdown" for Putin has already begun.
He wrote on social media: "Anything that might go wrong in Russia will go wrong, and this 'Prigozhin [chief of the Wagner PMC] incident' may or might have triggered processes with unpredictable consequences.
"The countdown has begun".
He added that Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko will serve as one of the negotiators after the war.
Read More On The Sun
Love Island in most gut-wrenching twist ever as girl is DUMPED after Kady returns
TV’s Ross Kemp pulled out of trip on doomed Titanic sub over safety fears
He said: "The real group of future Russian negotiators with Ukraine already exists, but it remains in the shadows, although Lukashenko's participation in this process is not ruled out."
Source: Read Full Article
