Ukraine war LIVE: Russia repels offensives in Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia regions

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday that he is concerned that Russia will on July 17 quit a deal allowing the safe wartime export of grain and fertilizers from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports.

"I am concerned and we are working hard in order to make sure that it will be possible to maintain the Black Sea initiative and at the same time that we are able to go on in our work to facilitate Russian exports," Guterres told reporters.

The Russian president said that Ukraine has been striking at civilian and humanitarian targets. As quoted by TASS, Putin said, "Why, frankly, is the enemy hitting residential areas? No logic. For what, why, what’s the point? And obviously humanitarian targets - it’s amazing. And there is no military sense, it's zero." 

Ukrainian forces have reportedly liberated a fifth village as part of its counter-offensive. According to the Institute for the Study of War, Ukraine said that Kyiv had reclaimed five towns and villages. 

Sky News reported that the Zaporizhzhia separate territorial defence brigade said that they had taken Novodarivka. The Zaporizhzhia separate territorial defence Brigade posted some pictures and said that "numerous attempts by the enemy to return the settlement under control, which lasted several days, were unsuccessful." 

According to some Western military analysts, 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 overinterpreted.

Ben Hodges, who is 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." 

On Russia's national day, President Vladimir Putin marked appealed to people's patriotic pride in what he said was a "difficult time" for the country. Putin made no direct comment on the latest developments in Ukraine, where Kyiv's forces have launched a long-awaited counteroffensive. 

The Russia president told the assembled dignitaries: "This public holiday marks the inseparability of our centuries-old history, the greatness and glory of the fatherland." 

"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)," Putin said.

Ukraine said that its troops had recaptured a fourth village in a cluster of settlements in the southeast. This comes a day after reporting the first small gains of a counteroffensive against Russian forces.

Images and videos from ground zero showed soldiers holding up the Ukrainian flag in Storozheve in the Donetsk region. The video footage was posted online and the defence minister thanked the 35th Separate Brigade of Marines for regaining control of the village. 

Ukraine has enforced strict operational silence to avoid compromising an operation it hopes will retake swathes of land in the east and south, and threaten the land bridge Russia uses to supply the occupied Crimea peninsula.

Russia has apparently repelled attempted offensives by Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, its defence ministry said on Monday, further adding that they had hit targets with sea-launched high-precision missile strikes. 

Ukraine said on Monday its troops had recaptured a fourth village from Russian forces in a cluster of settlements in the southeast, a day after reporting the first small gains of its long-anticipated counteroffensive.