Russian forces are “not doing enough to fight back against” the rapidly advancing Ukrainian troops, the Wagner Group leader has claimed. As Russian President Vladimir Putin baselessly suggested during a meeting with military journalists on Tuesday that his forces had destroyed 160 Ukrainian tanks and 360 armoured vehicles since the beginning of the counter offensive, Yevgeny Prigozhin shrugged off the claims as inaccurate, saying Ukraine had suffered only “normal combat losses”.
A US official familiar with American intelligence said Putin’s comments were “not accurate” and cautioned about putting any stock in Russia’s public assessments as more footage emerged purporting to show Ukrainian successes on the battlefield.
Over the last five days, footage published online of Ukrainian soldiers hoisting their national flag over a host of villages in western Donetsk Oblast, alongside the Zaporizhzia region, have suggested that their long-awaited counter offensives are already proving fruitful.
Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Malyar reported on June 12 that Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk and Zaporizhia directions had advanced four miles over the past week.
Geolocated footage posted that same day additionally indicated that Ukrainian forces had made limited advances in western Donetsk Oblast south of Velyka Novosilka, where they appear to be advancing slowly towards the occupied city of Mariupol on the southern coast.
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Express.co.uk has seen videos showing Ukrainian soldiers in the villages of Neskuchne, Blahodatne and Makarivka, all of which are located along the Mokri Yaly River south of Velyka Novosilka, in keeping with Ms Malyar’s claims.
The head of Ukraine’s ground troops Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Tuesday his forces were also “moving forward” outside Bakhmut as well, in Ukraine’s east, while Russian forces were “losing positions on the flanks.”
Prigozhin, speaking amid widespread Russian state propaganda lines on the state of the counter offensives, appeared to corroborate these Ukrainian reports while lauding the “competence” of Ukraine’s forces.
He said: “With the offensive, [Ukraine] does everything competently. They are cutting off certain areas in the Zaporizhzhia direction.
“Meanwhile, they are covering their left flank [Donbas]. Battles are taking place in Urozhaine and so on.
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“The area they managed to take as of today they evaluate at 100 square kilometres (38 square miles). In my calculations, it is even a bit more.
“They are moving carefully, calmly. They lost a couple of Leopards and Bradleys, but these are normal combat losses.
“I am not saying this to promote them but to judge sensibly. [Russia] needs to mobilise, get together and understand that [Ukraine] won’t stop until either they are beaten or they get some sort of positive result.
“For now, in my view, and according to the valuation of the military on the ground, not enough is being done to fight back against [Ukraine].”
Russian President Vladimir Putin asserted on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces had suffered “catastrophic” losses in the new counteroffensive.
The meeting, which lasted more than two hours, came after Russian missile strikes in central Ukraine killed at least 11 people overnight.
Putin said Ukraine’s counteroffensive has been unsuccessful. He asserted that Ukraine lost 160 tanks and over 360 other armoured vehicles, while Russia lost 54 tanks since the new assault began.
As Prigozhin continues his departure from Ukraine, however, having temporarily occupied the besieged city of Bakhmut following a 10-month bloodbath, his comments are becoming evermore divergent from the Kremlin’s claims.