"Every day we are making progress," Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on June 23. "This process is gradual, our troops are gaining ground on the front line and moving forward confidently."

Ms Maliar said that “major events and the main offensive are ahead”, and that the Ukrainian army would deploy some of its reserves for the counter-offensive. Ms Maliar insisted that the counter-offensive was “going according to plan” and that it was too early to assess the results.

"You shouldn't think that the offensive will be quick and over in an hour. The counteroffensive doesn't happen like that," Maliar said, admitting that Russian minefields on the southern front "certainly slowed down the counteroffensive."

According to Deputy Minister Maliar, Russia is strengthening its forces along the front line, as well as deploying airborne units (VDV) to the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russian reserve forces are moving to the east and have failed to break through the Ukrainian defense lines.

"There has been very heavy fighting in Kupyansk and Lyman for over a week. The Ukrainian army has stopped the enemy," Maliar said. "Large-scale attacks have caused serious losses to Russian forces and now they have stopped."

On the same day, spokesman for the eastern command of the Ukrainian army Serhii Cherevatyi said that the country's forces repelled Russian attacks in the Lyman - Kupyansk direction.

"The enemy shelled our positions 535 times over the past day," Cherevatyi said, adding that Russia "launched four air strikes and 282 shelling" on Ukrainian positions near Bakhmut.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on June 23 that Ukraine made the most efforts to attack in the southern direction of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk. The Russian army repelled three Ukrainian attacks in the southern direction of Donetsk and four in the Donetsk direction. Russian air force and artillery attacked the positions of Ukrainian units in Lugansk Oblast in the Lyman direction.

Ukraine launched a counteroffensive with NATO-trained brigades and Western weapons that began in early June. Ukrainian officials declared the offensive “partially successful” and recaptured eight villages. However, the Ukrainian army lost a number of heavy vehicles, including Leopard 2A6 tanks and M2 Bradley armored vehicles.

Russian officials said on June 22 that after more than 16 days of active offensive, the Ukrainian army suffered significant losses and had to reduce its activities to regroup and re-equip. They said Ukraine lost more than 13,000 soldiers, hundreds of vehicles and many tanks and armored vehicles in its unsuccessful attempt to break through the Russian defense line.

Nguyen Tien