Ukrainian troops continued their counteroffensive on the front line around two towns in the east of the country, with President Volodymyr Zelensky saying Russian forces were suffering heavy losses, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
Russia said its forces had captured two new villages in their slow advance through eastern and southern Ukraine, but the Defense Ministry made no mention of the Ukrainian offensive near the towns of Pokrovsk and Dobropilya.
Zelensky said in his nighttime video address that the counteroffensive had thwarted Russian plans for Moscow's long-standing goal of capturing the logistics hub of Pokrovsk.
"There was one of the most important areas of the Russian offensive and they failed to launch a full-scale offensive. Our military is destroying their forces,” Zelensky said.
"The Russians have suffered significant losses, and our country's "exchange fund" has been significantly replenished – more and more Russian soldiers are being captured every day."
Ukraine's Supreme Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky wrote on Telegram that his forces had advanced from three to seven kilometers through Russian defense lines.
In his video address, Zelensky also said that Ukrainian forces were holding their positions around Kupyansk – a district in the northeastern part of Ukraine's Kharkiv region that has been under Russian attacks for months.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that its forces had captured two more villages – Muravka, southwest of Pokrovsk, and Novoivanovka, further southwest in Zaporizhia Oblast.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Army named Muravka as one of several settlements where its forces stopped 87 attacks near Pokrovsk.
A vehicle of Ukrainian Channel 5 television came across a magnetic mine while traveling towards Pokrovsk, military correspondent Olga Kalinovska, who was preparing a report on the situation around Pokrovsk, reported live, Ukrinform reported.
"Usually, when vehicles, including ours, travel along the roads to Pokrovsk, reconnaissance teams and drone operators carefully check the routes. If there are mines, they drop charges to clear them and make the roads safe. But as I said, we spent a long time on the road with our "partners". Drones were constantly flying over us, and apparently a magnetic mine was set off at that moment. It fell among the debris that was already there. A hit-and-run vehicle had burned down earlier on this bend, and there were a lot of enemy drone debris scattered around, so the mine went unnoticed. So we set it off,” she explained.
Kalinovskaya added that the group traveled late at night and it took them six hours to reach Pokrovsk due to the threat of Russian strike drones. According to her, the Russians know all the other routes to the city and are actively mining them.
After the car hit the mine, the team hid in the nearby vegetation.
“Then another challenge arose: we knew the Russians had seen the car explode. They realized there was a team there and started looking for us. Our task was to get to the nearest trench and hide. We covered 200-300 meters in more than an hour. We moved for 20-30 seconds, then lay down, fell, hugged trees. The goal was simply to hide in the greenery, as two or three drones were constantly circling above us. Fortunately, they did not notice us,“ she said.
Kalinovska noted that the driver received the most serious injuries, including bruises and broken bones in his legs, and the members of the film crew received concussions.