Zelensky's counteroffensive crashing? Russia says it killed hundreds of Ukrainian troops in Donetsk region

Russia said on Monday (June 5) that its forces managed to thwart a major Ukrainian offensive at five points along the Donetsk region and killed hundreds of pro-Kyiv troops. Russia's defence in the Donetsk region at the time of this Ukrainian attack was led byRussian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov himself.

It is yet not clear if the troops at the Ukrainian side consisted ofthe regular forces or some anti-Russia militant group.

The supposed attack is deemed a part of Ukraine's counteroffensive which President Zelensky had been promising since months to recapture the territory lost in the war.

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Russia's defence ministry said Ukraine had attacked 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.

"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."

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Meanwhile, a pro-Ukraine group of Russian partisans on Sunday said it had captured several Russian soldiers during a cross-border raid and would hand them over to Ukrainian authorities.

The Russian Volunteer Corps made the claim in a video statement released on Telegram. The brief clip showed what appeared to be around a dozen Russian soldiers being held captive, with two lying on hospital beds.

The group said earlier it had taken two soldiers prisoner.

Earlier, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov published a cryptic message on Twitter on Sunday, quoting Depeche Mode's song "Enjoy the Silence".

"Words are very unnecessary. They can only do harm," his tweet said.

Russian forces killed 250 Ukrainian troops as well as destroying 16 tanks, three infantryfighting vehicles and 21 armoured combat vehicles, the ministry said.

Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, who is in charge of Moscow's military operation in Ukraine, was in the area of the Ukrainian attack, the ministry said.

"(Gerasimov) was at one of the advanced command posts," the ministry said.

Sixteen months into the war, Russia now controls at least 18 per centof what is internationally recognised to be Ukrainian territory, and has claimed four regions of Ukraine as Russian territory.

Disclaimer: A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the ground and online. While WION takes utmost care to accurately report this developing news story, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.

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