MELITOPOL, June 16. /TASS/. While Ukrainian troops have been attempting to advance toward Zaporozhye, Russian forces have not surrendered any strategically important localities to them yet, said acting governor of the Zaporozhye Region, Yevgeny Balitsky.
"In the past nine days, the enemy has been making attempts to break through the defense in the Zaporozhye direction. Meanwhile, we have not surrendered a single strategically important locality," he wrote on his Telegram channel.
"The localities in the Vremevsky outpost, about which the media has been writing, lie in low lands and therefore have been shelled from all sides," Balitsky added.
Earlier, the official said that Ukrainian forces have been attempting to execute offensive operations in the Zaporozhye Region, with no regard for losses, and can probably keep up with these efforts for four to six weeks.
The Russian Defense Ministry said earlier that, since June 4, the Ukrainian armed forces had been trying in vain to launch an offensive, while taking huge losses in manpower and equipment. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu stated on June 6 that, in the previous three days, Russian forces had repelled all of the Ukrainian army’s attempts to launch its long-promised offensive, causing Ukraine to lose up to 3,715 troops. Russian President Vladimir Putin, in turn, emphasized that Ukrainian forces had had no success in any area of the line of engagement.