ISW: Russia is trying to downplay gains made by Ukrainian counteroffensive

Ukraine’s forces carried out counteroffensive operations in at least three areas of the front line on June 10 and 11, liberating several towns, however it is premature to talk about a Ukrainian “breakthrough”, as per the US Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Furthermore, Russian sources are trying to downplay Ukraine’s gains and “omit reporting on Ukrainian forces breaking through defensive lines”.

According to the bulletin, the counteroffensive continued in the western parts of the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine. It was reported that Ukraine’s Armed Forces had made gains south of the Velyka Novosilka settlement and liberated, in particular, the villages of Makarivka, Neskuchne, Blahodatne, Storozheve, and Novodarivka.

Russian sources confirmed the advances, however claiming that the fighting was ongoing in “grey zone” or “contested areas” or that “Ukrainian forces are operating in areas that Russian forces did not fully occupy”.

“Russian sources are likely referring to Ukrainian territorial advances through Russian defences as capturing ‘grey zones’ in order to downplay Ukrainian gains and omit reporting on Ukrainian forces breaking through defensive lines,” the bulletin notes.

Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar declared that Russian forces are “transferring their most combat-capable units” from the Kherson direction to the Bakhmut and Zaporizhzhia directions after the destruction of the Kakhovka HPP dam.

According to Maliar, “Russian forces likely blew the KHPP dam in order to shorten their defensive lines” in the Kherson region “as part of the response to the start of the Ukrainian counteroffensive”, ISW notes.

Yesterday, 11 June, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence reported that the Ukrainian army had liberated the villages of Blahodatne and Makarivka in the Donetsk region, simultaneously advancing on the Bakhmut axis by 250 metres.