Ukraine said on Monday its troops had regained more ground along eastern and southern fronts in what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described as progress in a “difficult” week for Kyiv’s counteroffensive against Russian forces.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu meanwhile said that a brief mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group last month had not affected Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.
“The provocation did not affect the actions of army groups (involved in the operation),” he told a ministry meeting on Monday. They were Shoigu’s first public comments since the armed rebellion seemingly aimed at his role.
Moscow also said Monday that it had foiled a Ukrainian attempt to assassinate the Russian-backed head of occupied Crimea.
The Ukrainian military took back 14.4 square miles of territory in heavy fighting in the past week, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said.
She said Kyiv’s troops were advancing in the Bakhmut direction of eastern Ukraine and that Russian forces were attacking in the Lyman, Avdiivka and Mariinka directions in the Donetsk region in the east.
“Last week was difficult on the front line. But we are making progress,” Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
“We are moving forward, step by step! I thank everyone who is defending Ukraine, everyone who is leading this war to Ukraine’s victory!”
Russia, which began its full-scale invasion in February 2022, said at the weekend its forces had repelled Ukrainian attacks near villages ringing Bakhmut and in areas further south, particularly near the hilltop town of Vuhledar. It also reported success in containing Ukrainian troops in the northeast.
Reuters could not confirm the battlefield accounts.
Meanwhile, Russia’s FSB security service said on Monday it had thwarted a Ukrainian attempt to assassinate Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-backed head of Crimea, arresting an agent before he could blow up Aksyonov’s car.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Russian media have reported that security has been stepped up in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and that additional checks are being made on crossings from Russia’s southern Krasnodar region into Crimea.
The FSB said it had arrested a Russian national recruited by Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency who had undergone explosives, reconnaissance and sabotage training in Ukraine.
