He points to “partial successes” in Donetsk and figures at 650 Russian fighters “liquidated” during the last day
June 22 () –
The Ukrainian Armed Forces have assured this Thursday that they are carrying out “offensive operations” in three directions in the south and east of the country, within the framework of the recently launched counteroffensive against the invasion started by Russia in February 2022.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Army has indicated in a message on its account on the social network Facebook that “the Ukrainian Defense Forces continue to carry out offensive operations in three directions: Melitopol, Berdiansk and Lyman”, before pointing to “successes parts” around Rivnopil and Staromayorske, in the Donetsk oblast.
Thus, it has specified that the Ukrainian forces “have entrenched themselves on the borders reached, have fired artillery against identified enemy targets and have carried out countermeasures against battery fire.”
“The enemy uses its reserves and tries to restore the lost position, although it is suffering heavy losses,” he said, while stressing that the Ukrainian troops have launched an operation in the direction of Bilogorivka, in the vicinity of Lyman –also in Donetsk–, where they have also achieved “partial success”.
On the other hand, he has stated that 650 Russian fighters have been “liquidated” in the context of the clashes that have taken place over the last day and has brought the total number of Russian soldiers killed in combat since the start of the invasion to “close to 222,650”. figure much higher than that recognized by Moscow.
In addition, he highlighted that since the start of the war, 4,013 battle tanks, 3,941 artillery systems, 376 anti-aircraft defense systems, 314 planes, 307 helicopters, 3,438 drones, 1,214 cruise missiles, 18 boats, 6,678 vehicles and fuel tanks and 539 pieces of “special equipment”.
Russia has not provided data on casualties in the conflict since September, when Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu confirmed the deaths of 5,937 soldiers. The Russian news portal Mediazona raises the total number of deaths to 25,528 -including 1,058 during the last 15 days-, figures that it considers “corroborated” through publicly available data, a work carried out together with the British television channel BBC.
