WASHINGTON, June 10. /TASS/. The Russian forces are successfully repelling the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian armed forces, which will not be easy for the Kiev government, the Politico newspaper said.

The newspaper said that images of destroyed German-made Leopard tanks that were presumably taking part in the offensive are now being published online. Moreover, videos of destroyed US-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicles are now circulating on the social media.

"There are other images circulating online of destroyed or abandoned armored vehicles, meaning the Ukrainian advance has met some significant resistance already," the newspaper wrote.

"It’s early — really early — in the campaign. But the images indicate that a mechanized war won’t be all that easy for Ukraine and the Russians, for the moment, are having some success repelling the counteroffensive," the article says.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday the armed forces of Ukraine were sustaining heavy losses during the counteroffensive. He described it as a tragedy, adding that the current Kiev regime bears full responsibility for it.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported that since June 4, Ukrainian forces have been making failed counteroffensive attempts, suffering losses in manpower and hardware. On June 6, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said that over the past three days, the Russian military had repelled all of Ukraine’s attempts to launch its "long-promised offensive." Ukraine lost up to 3,715 men, 259 tanks and armored combat vehicles, 134 trucks, 48 field artillery guns and more than 50 drones.

Bloomberg said that the West acknowledges the huge losses suffered by the Ukrainian army. Meanwhile, Politico wrote citing senior US officials that future support for Kiev hinges on the success of its counteroffensive.