As battles intensify in east Ukraine, Putin says Kyiv’s counteroffensive lacking success

Kyiv and Moscow launched airstrikes on each other’s forces as diplomatic efforts intensified to persuade Russia to extend a deal allowing Ukraine to export grain via the Black Sea in advance of its expiry on Monday.

The Ukrainian military said it hit a depot of Russian missiles in an occupied town in the eastern Luhansk region on Sunday, and several other large explosions were reported in the Moscow-controlled cities of Mariupol and Berdyansk in southeastern Ukraine.

A Moscow-installed official in occupied Crimea said Russian forces intercepted eight drones flying over the Black Sea peninsula and two marine drones on the approach to one of its harbours, in what he called a “large and prolonged” attack.

Ukrainian officials said Russia hit the eastern city of Kharkiv with two S-300 missiles without causing injuries, and wounded one person with a rocket attack on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia. The northern Sumy region was also targeted in 16 Russian missile, artillery and mortar attacks, damaging several buildings but without causing casualties.

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[ Ukraine war: Putin claims counteroffensive against Russia not succeeding ]

[ Russian forces doing utmost to stop Ukraine’s counteroffensive, Zelenskiy says ]

Ukraine says the counteroffensive it launched against Russia’s occupation force last month is moving slowly through heavily mined areas of the southeast, where troops advanced more than one kilometre in one section of the front in recent days.

Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said hostilities had “escalated” in the Kupiansk district of the Kharkiv region, where “the enemy has been actively advancing… for two days in a row. We are on the defensive. There are fierce battles, and the positions of the parties change dynamically several times a day.”

Ms Maliar said that, near the Russian-occupied city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, “we are gradually moving forward. On the southern flank around Bakhmut, there is a daily advance. On the northern flank, we are trying to hold the positions we have taken; the enemy is attacking. In Bakhmut itself, we fire at the enemy, and the enemy at us.”

Kyiv says it is trying to inflict heavy damage on Russian units in occupied areas from long distance, while conducting demining operations that would allow it to retake more territory at greater speed at a later stage. Moscow says Ukraine has made no significant gains during its counteroffensive and has suffered severe losses in troops and armour.

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“All the enemy’s attempts to break through our defence – which is a task including the use of strategic reserves – have not succeeded since the offensive began. The enemy has no success,” said Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Russia is threatening not to prolong a deal brokered last year to allow Ukraine to export grain from its Black Sea ports, under which some 32 million tonnes of food products have reached world markets. The United Nations, Turkey and the European Union are among those trying to persuade Russia to extend the deal beyond Monday. The Kremlin said Mr Putin told South African president Cyril Ramaphosa on Saturday that “the obligations envisaged in the relevant Russia-UN memorandum to remove obstacles to the export of Russian food and fertilisers remained unfulfilled”.