Ukrainian counteroffensive will be as successful as in the fall – Zelensky

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, said that the advance of Ukrainian troops at the front is not going quickly. The autumn counteroffensive of the Armed Forces also began similarly.

Rubryka reports, citing Zelensky's interview with the BBC.

"In the fall, we had appropriate counteroffensive actions, which seemed this was a slow process. But at some point, everyone saw how we rapidly began to move forward. The same will happen here," the head of state said.

Zelensky noted that, in general, the state leadership evaluates the counteroffensive positively. According to him, the Armed Forces face difficulties, particularly with mined territories.

"I would like to take bigger steps, they are a little smaller, but you know: the one who fights will win, and the one who knocks on the door will open it. In any case, we are confident in the success of counteroffensive actions," said the president.

Zelensky said that he was not sure of the ability of the Russian occupiers to resist the Ukrainian army. However, he believes the Russians are ready to commit large-scale disasters, such as blowing up the Kakhovka dam.

"Someone says that they wanted to prevent our counteroffensive in this way. Well, I'll tell you honestly, don't believe such information. Russia does it every day. It blows up our infrastructure daily, strikes us with missiles, etc. They won't stop us with such actions, but on the contrary, they will make people angry," Zelensky emphasized.

Background

At the beginning of June, the Ukrainian military intensified offensive operations at several front lines. In particular, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are advancing on the flanks of the Bakhmut direction in Ukraine's east.

Ukrainian soldiers also began to liberate settlements in the Berdiansk and Zaporizhzhia directions. For a long time, the front line in these directions was unchanged.

The following settlements were successfully de-occupied in the Zaporizhzhia region: Lobkove, Levadne, and Novodarivka.

In the Donetsk region, Ukrainian soldiers liberated the villages of Storozheve, Blahodatne, Neskuchne, and Makarivka.

On Monday, June 19, Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Maliar reported that the Armed Forces of Ukraine liberated Piatykhatky in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region.

At the same time, British intelligence notes that the Russian occupying forces are now suffering their heaviest losses since the peak of the Battle of Bakhmut in March of this year.

The Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Hanna Maliar, also reported that the Russians are trying to stop the offensive actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and are not giving up.

However, in recent days, the Russian occupiers have become more active in the Lyman-Kupiannsk direction. Ukrainian defenders hold back enemy assaults.

Also, according to the military, Ukrainian defenders advanced a kilometer in the Tavria direction and leveled the front line.