The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) refused to recognize the start of the counteroffensive. It is reported by Reuters.

“We do not have such information, and we do not comment on any kind of fake,” said the representative of the department.

Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry announced the failure of the Ukrainian army’s attempt to conduct a large-scale offensive in five sectors of the front in the Yuzhno-Donets direction. We are talking about 23 and 31 mechanized brigades from the strategic reserves of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which, with the support of other military units and subunits, tried to carry out offensive operations.

The ministry noted that the Ukrainian military pursued the goal of breaking through the Russian defenses in the most vulnerable, in their opinion, sector of the front in the south of the Donetsk People's Republic.