Vladimir Putin has reportedly lost a top Russian military leader who has been killed in a missile attack while leading troops in southern Ukraine. Major General Sergei Goryachev, who held the position of chief of staff for the 35th Combined Arms Army is said to have died on June 12 during intense fighting in the “Vremivka Ledge” area in southern Donetsk, where Ukraine has successfully regained control of four villages as part of their counter-offensive.
This marks the fifth instance of a high-ranking Russian general losing their life in Ukraine. Prior to his involvement in Ukraine, Goryachev had served in Transnistria, a self-declared militarized region in Moldova, as well as Tajikistan.
In response to Russian forces’ presence, Ukraine has recently initiated a counter-offensive with the objective of reclaiming territory.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar has said the country’s troops recaptured a total of seven villages spanning 90 square kilometers (35 square miles) over the past week — small successes in the early phases of a counter-offensive.
Russian officials did not confirm those Ukrainian gains, which were impossible to verify and could be reversed in the to-and-fro of war.
The advance amounted to only small bits of territory and underscored the difficulty of the battle ahead for Ukrainian forces, who will have to fight metre by metre to regain the roughly one-fifth of their country under Russian occupation.
Ukrainian troops have retaken seven villages spanning 90 square kilometers (35 square miles) from Russian forces in the past week, the deputy defense minister said Monday as the early stages of Kyiv’s counteroffensive notched small successes.
Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar wrote on the Telegram app that the Ukrainian flag was again flying over the village of Storozhov, in the eastern Donetsk province, and that her troops had also retaken three other nearby small villages and three in neighbouring Zaporizhzhia province.
“The battles are tough, but our movement is there, and that is very important,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.”
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He added that rainy weather is challenging his troops, and that he’s discussed with his military commanders “which points of the front we need to strengthen and what actions we can take to break more Russian positions.”
On Sunday, Ukrainian officials said their troops took the Donestk villages of Blahodatne, Makarivka and Neskuchne — south of the town of Velyka Novosilka. Maliar reported on Monday (June 12) that the Zaporizhzhia province settlements of Lobkove, Levadne and Novodrivka were also now back under Ukrainian control.
Russian officials did not confirm Ukraine’s gains, which were impossible to verify and could be reversed in the to-and-fro of war. The gains amounted to only small bits of territory and underscored the difficulty of the battle ahead for Ukrainian forces, who will have to fight metre by metre to regain the roughly one-fifth of their country under Russian occupation.
Recent fighting on the western edge of the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line has been complicated by a dam breach that sent floodwaters into a part of the Dnieper River separating the two sides.
At least six people were killed when Russian missiles hit civilian buildings in an overnight attack Tuesday in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, regional officials said, as rescuers scrambled to retrieve people believed trapped under the rubble.
The strike involving cruise missiles hit a five-story residential building, which was engulfed in fire, Gov. Serhiy Lysak of the Dnipropetrovsk region wrote on Telegram.
After initial reports of three dead, Kryvyi Rih mayor Oleksandr Vilkul wrote on the social media app that the death toll had risen to a least six, and seven people were feared trapped under the rubble. Authorities initially said at least two dozen people were injured.
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