Kremlin Says Ukraine’s Much-Heralded Counteroffensive In South Already “Failed Miserably”

On Monday Ukraine’s forces launched a much anticipated ‘counteroffensive’ focused on taking back territory in the south of the country, which is among the first portions of Ukraine which Russia seized soon after starting its invasion six months ago.

The operation is said to reflect a growing “confidence” in Kiev that American military aid will continue to flow and even grow. “Today we started offensive actions in various directions, including in the Kherson region,” a Ukrainian public broadcaster announced based on state officials.

Ukrainian journalist Natalia Humeniuk admitted that Russian forces in the south are still “quite powerful” but that Ukraine’s forces have “unquestionably weakened the enemy” – which Russia’s Crimea governor Sergei Aksyonov dismissed as “another fake of Ukrainian propaganda.”

And the White House said that Russia has already had to “pull resources” from fighting in Donbas in order to defend the south.

Like with many prior major battlefield events, two competing narratives are quickly emerging. US officials including a number of Congressmen expressed their immediate optimism upon that start of the southern counteroffensive…

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