Russia’s defense ministry says Ukrainian forces have suffered significant losses in the battle on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River in the Kherson region.
The defense ministry issued the statement hours after Ukraine claimed that its forces had managed to push Russian soldiers out of positions in the region and established several bridgeheads.
“The enemy is on the right (western) bank of the Dnipro and during attempts to land on islands lost more than 460 servicemen, killed and wounded, two tanks and 17 vehicles,” said the Russian defense ministry.
A Russian official in the region also said Russian forces were “destroying” Ukrainian forces “on the largest scale” in the village of Krynky, where he said they had been trapped.
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian General Staff spokesperson Andriy Kovalyov claimed that “units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces managed to knock out the Russians from their positions on the left bank of the Dnipro and consolidate there.”
He said that Ukrainian troops were conducting sabotage and reconnaissance actions to discover and disrupt logistics for Russian ammunition and food supplies.
He also admitted that the Russian military mounted heavy resistance and brought in reinforcements.
Ukrainian troops have for months been struggling to cross the Dnipro River and transport heavy military equipment and supplies, in order to open a new line of attack in the south on the most direct land route to Crimea, which declared independence from Ukraine in 2014.
The commander in chief of Ukraine’s forces Valery Zaluzhny acknowledged in an interview with the Economist earlier this month that the war with Russia had reached a “stalemate.”
“Just like in the First World War, we have reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate.”
He made the acknowledgment months after Ukraine launched counteroffensive operations against Russian forces in the southeast and east. The operations, however, have stalled with progress on the two principal axes on the southern front modest since it began in early June.
