The Russian Ministry of Defense reports Ukrainian offensive operations along the front line south and east of Zaporizhia.

The Defense Ministry update, posted on its Telegram channel, said troops from the Vostok Brigade immediately southeast of the frontline town of Orikhiv repelled two forward attempts by Ukrainian tank units. , one near the village of Novopokrovka.

Furthermore, he said that two Ukrainian armored columns were pushed back near Novodanilovka and Mala Tamkachka.

In the same area, Russian military bloggers said Russian troops in positions near the road south of Orikhiv towards Tokmak continued to report extremely heavy Ukrainian artillery fire.

Further east along the frontline, southwest of Velyka Novosilka in the Donetsk region, the Russian Defense Ministry said three more breakthrough attempts had been made by Ukrainian forces, which, according to him, had all been defeated.

CNN cannot verify the claims of the Russian Ministry of Defense, and the situation is no clearer on the Ukrainian side. Kyiv officials have released little information since stepping up activity on the Zaporizhia-Donetsk front about six days ago.

President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed Ukraine’s latest military operations at a press conference on Saturday, when he was asked to respond to comments by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, who said on Friday: “It can be said with absolute certainty that the counter-offensive [ucraniana] began. The Russian leader added that he had no success.

Zelensky said that “relevant counter-offensive defensive actions are taking place in Ukraine. I will not give any details on the stage in which it is.

“It is interesting that Putin was talking about our counter-offensive. It is important that Russia feels [la contraofensiva]feel like you don’t have much time left,” he said.

After spending most of the winter fighting around Bakhmut, training its soldiers and waiting for the arrival of Western military aid such as tanks and long-range strike weapons such as Storm Shadow missiles , in recent weeks, Ukraine has taken a clear step forward. initiate military activities.

These include so-called shaping operations (strikes against targets far behind the front lines, such as fuel depots and soldier barracks) and, more recently, probing operations. , during which an army conducts what are sometimes called reconnaissance-in-force operations, which are designed to test the enemy’s weaknesses as well as their combat readiness.

However, it is not yet clear whether Ukraine has started moving large numbers of ground forces in an attempt to retake the vast swaths of territory still held by Russian occupation forces.