Ukraine reported minor territorial gains, and videos showed abandoned or destroyed Leopard 2 tanks

Ukraine says it liberated an area near the city of Pashmut, which fell entirely into Russian hands last month. Today, Saturday, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Armed Forces said that the Ukrainian army pushed the Russian army to a distance of 1.4 kilometers from several locations near the occupied city.

It is difficult to verify the statements of both armies in the fog of the counterattack. Obviously, heavy fighting broke out again on Saturday in eastern and southeastern Ukraine. Videos show Ukrainian soldiers storming Russian trenches using American armored vehicles. A resident of an occupied village in Zaporizhia Province reported violent explosions on Telegram on Saturday near Tokmak, a city that Ukraine must recapture in order to advance towards the larger Melitopol.

President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed for the first time on Saturday that Ukraine was carrying out a counterattack, but did not say what stage the offensive had reached. The Ukrainian army called on the population not to spread information about the attack through it video of the soldiers with their index fingers to their lips.

Abandoned or destroyed tigers

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that the Ukrainian offensive had begun. Russia says it has so far halted attacks on Ukraine. Videos distributed and verified by Russian military bloggers New York times Three abandoned or destroyed German Leopard 2 tanks are shown for the Ukrainian army.

Military experts predict that the offensive will continue for months. “First impressions are more reminiscent of Kherson than Kharkiv,” wrote Michael Kaufman, a Russian military expert at the American think tank CNA. In Kharkiv Province, Ukraine liberated an area a quarter the size of the Netherlands in three weeks last year. In contrast, the offensive in Kherson province, where a smaller area was liberated, was much slower and at a greater cost: it took the Ukrainian army more than three months to drive the Russian army from the west bank of the Dnipro River.

Meanwhile, Russia launches new airstrikes on Ukrainian cities. Ukrainian authorities said that three civilians were killed on Saturday in a Russian attack by Iranian drones in Odessa. In Kherson province, a Russian artillery attack killed two aid workers while evacuating civilians from homes flooded by the breach of the Nova Kakhovka Dam. At least 27 people have been lost in the flood area by the Ukrainian authorities.