MELITOPOL, October 3. /TASS/. Russian Armed Forces units have advanced several hundred meters since last night toward Orekhovo, in the vicinity of the villages of Rabotino and Verbovoye, in the direction of the Vremevsky Bulge, Vladimir Rogov, chairman of the We Stand With Russia movement, told TASS on Tuesday.
"The enemy had made attempts to advance toward Orekhovo near Verbovoye in order to break through to Novoprokopovka before we counterattacked near Rabotino. A certain degree of success has been made as our [troops] have advanced several hundred meters forward. <...> We have pushed the frontline a few hundred meters forward," the politician said. Ukrainian troops attempted to attack Russian positions last night and in the early hours of Tuesday, he added.
"In the direction of the Vremevsky Bulge, [we] have moved forward by several hundred meters in battles near Urozhainoye. We can claim that the territory under our control and the gray zone has been expanded both in the Orekhovo direction and near the Vremevsky Bulge," he said with confidence.
The Ukrainian armed forces have been making unsuccessful attempts at a counteroffensive since June 4. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on September 12 that, since then, Ukrainian troops had lost 71,500 troops and almost 18,500 tanks and other armored vehicles of various types. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu released official statistics on September 26 showing that Ukraine had sustained more than 17,000 casualties in this month alone and that the Ukrainian counteroffensive had failed to yield any tangible results.