(Reuters) -Russian forces are waging a non-stop offensive along almost the entire front line in Ukraine and have the “strategic initiative”, the chief of Russia’s general staff said on Saturday.
“The combined group of troops continues a non-stop offensive along almost the entire front line,” General Valery Gerasimov told his deputies in an address published by the Defence Ministry. “At present, the strategic initiative lies entirely with Russian forces.”
But Ukrainian military spokesperson Viktor Trehubov said Kyiv’s forces had scored front-line successes, keeping Russian troops from seizing targets in Donetsk region and halting further advances into Dnipropetrovsk region. In one area, he said, Kyiv’s troops had surrounded Russian units.
Reuters was unable to independently verify battlefield accounts from either side.
Russia has stepped up airstrikes on Ukrainian towns and cities far behind the front lines this summer and has continued a grinding offensive across much of the east, trying to gain more territory in its 3-1/2-year-old war in Ukraine.
Russian attacks on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, on Thursday killed 25 people, Ukrainian officials said.
The strikes took place less than two weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Alaska, a meeting that Washington had hoped would advance his efforts to end the conflict.
Trehubov, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Dnipro group of forces, said Russia had committed big troop contingents in Donetsk region, but had failed in recent months to capture key targets, including the cities of Pokrovsk, Toretsk and Chasiv Yar.
“Despite its aggressive actions, despite success at some points in pressuring Ukrainian positions, Russia has scored no quick victories,” he told national television.
Russian troops, he said, had been surrounded near Dobropillya, north of Pokrovsk. And Ukrainian forces had recaptured the village of Myrne, near Kupiansk further north — another area of recent heavy Russian activity.
RUSSIAN MILITARY SAYS NEW VILLAGE CAPTURED
Russia’s Defence Ministry on Saturday announced the capture of the village of Komyshuvakha in the centre of Donetsk region. But Ukraine’s military made no acknowledgement that the village had changed hands, saying that it was one of several localities where Kyiv’s forces had countered Russian attacks.
Moscow denies targeting civilians. Ukrainian officials say scores of civilians have been killed in Russian strikes on densely populated areas in recent months, and thousands since the start of the war.
Gerasimov said Russia had carried out 76 targeted strikes on Ukrainian military-industrial facilities this spring and summer, with a focus on destroying sites where long-range missile systems and drones are produced.
Gerasimov said Moscow was now in control of 99.7% of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, 79% of the eastern Donetsk region, 74% of the Zaporizhzhia region and 76% of the Kherson region.
Since March, Russia has captured more than 3,500 square km (1,351 square miles) of Ukrainian territory and taken control of 149 villages, he said.
Russian forces this month have begun pressing into Ukraine’s southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, open-source maps show. Gerasimov said seven villages in the region were now under Russian control. Ukraine’s military says its forces had constrained Russian movements in the area.
(Reporting by Lucy Papachristou; Additional reporting by Anastasiia Malenko, Editing by Gareth Jones, Timothy Heritage and Alistair Bell)
