Extract from ABC News
Ukraine says it has recaptured a fourth village from Russian forces in a cluster of settlements in the south-east, where its troops have at last claimed gains in its long-anticipated counteroffensive.
Key points:
- Ukraine says it liberated four villages in Russian-held territory
- Russia claims it repelled new Ukrainian offensives in Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia
- US defence analysts say a full Ukrainian offensive hasn't yet commenced
Soldiers were seen in a video holding the Ukrainian flag in the village of Storozheve on Monday, along the Mokri Yaly river which flows northward out of Russian-held territory.
A day earlier Kyiv said its forces heading south had liberated three other nearby villages: Blahodatne, Neskuchne, and Makarivka.
The push is already Ukraine's most rapid advance for seven months, though still short of a major breakthrough, with Russia believed to have a strong line of fortifications further south.
At the furthest claimed by Kyiv, it adds up to 5 kilometres in total, still some 90 km from the Azov Sea coast and the prize of cutting Russia's "land bridge" to Crimea, the peninsula Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014.
A Ukrainian defence spokesman said Russia had blown up a dam on the Mokri Yaly to make it harder for Ukrainian forces to push farther south. That came less than a week after a huge dam was destroyed on the much larger Dnipro River, causing a humanitarian catastrophe in a swathe of the south.
Kyiv has also launched assaults at other locations along the huge front line, probing for Russian weaknesses, though it has given few details so far.
Ukraine's armed forces said they had engaged in two dozen heavy battles in the previous 24 hours on the eastern front, near the town of Bakhmut, further south near Avdiivka and Maryinka, and further north near Bilohorivka.
They have not been providing similar detail about fighting on the southern front, where the main counteroffensive is expected.
Main attack 'has not yet started'
Some Western military analysts said it was too early to draw conclusions about the counteroffensive, and the skirmishes so far may show Ukraine is still just testing Russian defences.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War said Ukraine was attempting "an extraordinarily difficult tactical operation – a frontal assault against prepared defensive positions, further complicated by a lack of air superiority", and that initial assaults should not be over-interpreted.
Ben Hodges, a former commander of US forces in Europe, said the main attack, when it came, would feature several hundred tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.
"The offensive has clearly started, but not I think the main attack," he wrote in an article for the Washington-based Center for European Policy Analysis.
"When we see large, armoured formations join the assault, then I think we'll know the main attack has really begun."
Russia has yet to face this kind of onslaught, but its unconvincing battlefield performance in the 15 months since its full-scale invasion has led to frequent changes of command and public arguments with the private militias summoned to fight alongside the army.
There are signs that Moscow is now seeking to impose stronger control, with an order that such units should quickly sign contracts bringing them under the Defence Ministry.
It said it has signed such a contract with the Akhmat paramilitary force, one of the armed units that help to keep President Vladimir Putin's appointee Ramzan Kadyrov in power in the Chechnya region of the northern Caucasus.
But Yevgeny Prigozhin, the increasingly recalcitrant and voluble leader of the Wagner militia, which fought for almost a year to capture Bakhmut from Ukrainian forces, said he would refuse to sign.
Mr Prigozhin, who has repeatedly accused Moscow of starving his fighters of support, said Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu "cannot manage military formations properly".
Russia's defence ministry said it had repelled attempted offensives by Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions and had hit targets with sea-launched high-precision missile strikes.
Russia said its forces had launched a strike on Ukrainian army reserve locations using long-range precision weaponry, launched from the sea.
France to intensify arms delivery to help counteroffensive
French President Emmanuel Macron has promised more military aid to Kyiv.
At a press conference after a meeting with Polish and German leaders, the so-called Weimar Triangle, Mr Macron said: "We have done everything to help it."
"We have intensified the delivery of ammunitions, weapons and armed vehicles … We'll continue in coming days and weeks," Mr Macron said.
The three-way meeting in Paris was meant to send a signal of unity between eastern and western Europe, after Warsaw took on a major logistical and diplomatic role in helping Ukraine, while often castigating German and French leaders for being too slow.
Mr Macron said the meeting was proof that there was no division between "old" and "new" Europe, a distinction once made by the United States when eastern European countries refused to back France and Germany over the war in Iraq 20 years ago.
Both Mr Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said they supported the migration deal agreed by EU ministers last week, in which EU countries unwilling to take in refugees at home would be asked to give a financial contribution to their hosting peers.
But Polish President Andrzej Duda said he was "skeptical".
"We took in those who needed help in Poland … we helped, to be honest, we did not receive any particular help especially from EU institutions," he said.
"I hope that no institution in the EU will come up with an idea to punish us for the fact that while still having the perspective of more Ukrainian refugees arriving, we are skeptical about accepting migrants from other directions as well."
Putin appeals to Russians' patriotism on national day
Mr Putin marked Russia's national day on Monday by appealing to Russians' patriotic pride at what he said was a "difficult time" for the country.
However, speaking at a lavish award-giving ceremony in the Kremlin, Mr Putin made no direct comment on the latest developments in Ukraine, where Kyiv's forces have launched a long-awaited counteroffensive and have retaken several villages in the eastern Donetsk region over the past few days.
"This public holiday marks the inseparability of our centuries-old history, the greatness and glory of the fatherland," Mr Putin told the assembled dignitaries.
"Today, at a difficult time for Russia, (feelings of patriotism and pride) unite our society even more strongly… (and) serve as a reliable support for our heroes taking part in the special military operation (in Ukraine)," Mr Putin said.
Russia's Defence Ministry released a video for Monday's national day featuring scenes of Russian lakes, forests and Orthodox churches and icons, along with clips of soldiers expressing love for their country.
"I am Russian, thank the Lord, I am Russian, I am so lucky," says one.
"Russia is like a fortress above the abysss, it has stood and will stand," says another.
On this day in 1991, the Russian parliament formally declared Russian sovereignty from the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was officially dissolved in December that year and the June 12 holiday was established in 1992.
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