Zelensky has "great news": "The counteroffensive is underway"

Zelensky has "great news": "The counteroffensive is underway"

Kyiv did not provide more precise information regarding the counteroffensive, reports Reuters.

The governor of the Luhansk region, Serhii Gaidai, announced to Ukrainian television, without specifying the locations, that "the counterattack is underway" and the forces of Kyiv "are having some success", but did not provide more information.

An adviser to the Ukrainian president previously announced on Twitter that President Volodymyr Zelensky would receive "great news" about the operation in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, Reuters reports.

In his evening address, however, Zelensky only briefly mentioned the operations in the Kharkiv region, but announced that five Russian cruise missiles were shot down on Tuesday, most of them in the south, according to the British agency.

On Tuesday, an official in the pro-Russian self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Daniil Bezsonov, gave a more detailed account of the fighting in Balaklia, a city of 27.000 people located between Kharkiv and Russian-controlled Izhevsk.

"Today, the Ukrainian armed forces, after prolonged artillery preparation... began an attack on Balaklia...", Bezsonov announced on Telegram, adding that the Russian forces in Izyum, if the city is lost, will become vulnerable on their northwestern flank. He also said that at this moment, Balaklia is "in an operational environment and within the range of Ukrainian artillery", and that "all the access points have been cut off by fire".

Vadim Krokhmal, a member of the Kupyansk City Council, a city east of Kharkiv that has been under Russian control for the past five months, posted a video online urging residents not to take part in any referendum on joining Russia that might be organized.

"Very soon, the Ukrainian armed forces will liberate Kupyansk. We know it, we are sure of it," the official said, advising people to prepare food supplies.

There is scarce information on the progress of Ukraine's main offensive in the southern Kherson region, with Kyiv not allowing journalists access to the front lines and publishing only scant reports, according to Reuters. While Russia claims to have repelled an attack on Kherson, Ukraine reports steady progress, reports the British agency.

"We are fighting positional battles. And there are already areas that we have liberated," Nataliya Gumenyuk, spokesperson for the Southern District of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, told national television.

Western military experts believe that Ukraine's goal in the south of the country is to surround thousands of Russian soldiers on the west bank of the Dnieper River and cut them off by destroying their rear supply lines, reports Reuters.