Russia 'Rapidly' Losing Control of Occupied Ukraine: Kyiv

Ukraine's armed forces say that Russian troops are quickly losing control of occupied areas, as Kyiv's units launch a long-awaited major offensive with the help of new NATO weapons systems including main battle tanks.

This week has seen the beginning of Kyiv's long-planned operation. Russian forces are reporting an intensification of fighting and offensive actions by mechanized columns at multiple points along the 800-mile front line. This includes around the Donetsk city of Bakhmut and along the southern contact line in Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

Hanna Maliar, deputy Ukrainian defense minister, said on Telegram on Thursday that Russian influence over occupied regions is slipping. Moscow's forces have resorted to more punitive methods of controlling the local population.

"The influence of the Russian occupation administrations in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine is rapidly decreasing due to their inability to maintain appropriate living conditions of the local population," Maliar wrote.

Russian troops in the partially occupied Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia have for months been preparing for a counterattack from Ukraine. Moscow's forces have also been contending with deep strikes behind the lines, sabotage operations by partisans, and Ukrainian special-forces actions.

Maliar said that the situation is becoming more difficult for the occupiers as Ukraine switches over to offensive operations. Moscow's forces are adopting tougher measures to weed out hidden enemies, she added.

"In particular, last week, Kyrylivka village in the temporarily occupied territory of Zaporizhzhia region was encircled by Russian troops for several days, during which total filtration of the local population, raids on local infrastructure facilities and citizens' homes were carried out," Maliar wrote.

"Representatives of Russia's FSB [Federal Security Service] checked especially thoroughly the citizens who were reported to have pro-Ukrainian views, including those based on denunciations." Some of those taken away for further questioning, Maliar said, have not returned.

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry via email to request comment.

Russian officials have so far been bullish on Ukraine's unfolding offensive. They say their forces have defeated several armored Ukrainian drives while inflicting heavy losses on the attackers. But Moscow's history of disinformation and obfuscation has left little trust in its military reports.

Ukraine, meanwhile, is largely maintaining operational silence on the new offensive. Maliar earlier this week said there would be no announcement of when the push began.

Maliar did, however, add that Ukrainian units in several areas had switched over to offensive operations, on Friday, reporting intense Russian attacks in the Donetsk region—which Maliar said remains the "epicenter" of the fighting—and Ukrainian activity in Zaporizhzhia.

"War is not without losses," Maliar wrote. Emerging reports from Russian military bloggers and U.S. sources have detailed significant casualties among the attacking Ukrainian troops encountering the first line of Russian defenses.