REUTERS, Kyiv

Moscow said yesterday it had thwarted “a large-scale” Ukrainian offensive in the south of Ukraine’s Donetsk region but Russia’s main mercenary leader said Russian forces had lost ground around Bakhmut further north.

Asked whether the attacks represented the start of Ukraine’s long-heralded counter-offensive against Russia’s invasion, Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of Ukraine’s Security and Defence Council, told Reuters: “The war continues. Until complete victory.”

Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine had attacked on Sunday morning with six mechanised and two tank battalions in southern Donetsk, where Moscow has long suspected Ukraine would seek to drive a wedge through Russian-controlled territory.

“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 defence ministry said in a statement posted on Telegram at 1:30 am Moscow time (2230 GMT).

“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.”

Asked to comment, a Ukrainian military spokesperson said: “We do not have such information and we do not comment on any kind of fake.”

The commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said yesterday that Ukrainian forces continued “moving forward” near the long-contested city of Bakhmut in northern Donetsk and an armed forces video showed Russian positions under fire.

Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said Ukrainian forces had retaken part of the settlement of Berkhivka, north of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, calling it a “disgrace”.

Prigozhin’s private Wagner army captured Bakhmut last month after the longest battle of the war and handed its positions there to regular Russian troops.

The daily report from Ukraine’s General Staff said only that there were 29 combat clashes in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine’s Centre for Strategic Communications did not address Russian statement directly but said, without providing evidence, that Russia would seek to spread lies.

“To demoralize Ukrainians and mislead the community (including their own population), Russian propagandists will spread false information about the counter-offensive, its directions, and the losses of Ukrainian army,” it said.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov published a cryptic message on Twitter on Sunday, quoting Depeche Mode’s track “Enjoy the Silence”.

Russian war bloggers reported fighting at several points across the front, particularly around Vuhledar, some 150 km (93 miles) southwest of Bakhmut.

Russia’s defence ministry released video of what it said showed several Ukrainian armoured vehicles in a field blowing up after being hit. Reuters geo-located it to near Velyka Novosilka, a village west of Vuhledar but could not verify the date.

“There is a tough fight going on,” wrote prominent Russian military blogger Semyon Pegov, who blogs under the name War Gonzo, saying Ukrainian forces were attacking in the area.

The ministry said Russian forces killed 250 Ukrainian troops as well as destroying 16 tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles and 21 armoured combat vehicles. Reuters was not able to verify the figures. Both sides have exaggerated casualties suffered by the other.