The Ukrainian armed forces have officially announced the start of a much-anticipated counteroffensive against the Russian armed forces, with sources close to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claiming that Ukrainian forces were engaged with Russian forces, according to a report from ABC news.
Heavy fighting has been reported in the region of Zaporizhzhia, which, according to the Washington Post, is likely due to a Ukrainian strategy to cut off Russian forces from the Crimean Peninsula and reduce Russia’s ability to resupply its forces deeper inside Ukraine.
So far it is unclear how much progress Ukrainian forces have made in the initial stages of the counteroffensive, although Ukraine is said to have already deployed Leopard II tanks on the southeastern front, many of which were supplied in recent months by NATO members such as Germany, following demands for more equipment by Ukrainian officials.
Earlier this week, Russian officials claimed to have destroyed a Leopard II tank but observers on social media claimed that footage shown by the Russian Ministry of Defence was actually farm equipment.
Russia has also claimed that Ukraine has already suffered considerable losses in the first days of the counteroffensive, claiming the country has lost “more than 1,600 troops, 28 tanks, including 8 Leopard tanks and 3 AMX-10 wheeled tanks, 136 other military vehicles, including 79 foreign-manufactured ones.”
Ukraine, meanwhile, has asserted that Russia has lost at least 13 tanks and around 37 pieces of artillery. Neither Russia nor Ukraine has provided concrete evidence of the destruction of tanks or other equipment, however.
The much-awaited counteroffensive comes after several key events in the ongoing conflict, including the fall of the city of Bakhmut to Russian PMC Wagner Group mercenaries last month as well as the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant earlier this week, which caused severe flooding downstream on the banks of the Dnipro River.
