Ukraine Teases Counteroffensive 'Main Event' as Forces Push On in Bakhmut

The "main event" of Ukraine's counteroffensive is still to come, Kyiv has said, as its military grinds away at Russian troops in the city of Bakhmut.

Recent gains in Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia villages are "not the main event," Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine's defense minister, told the Financial Times in an interview published on Wednesday.

"When it happens, you will all see it," Reznikov added.

Ukraine's forces began a concerted push back against Russian forces in early June, primarily in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions annexed by Moscow. Several villages in the two regions have been retaken, Ukraine's military has said, and experts believe Kyiv's operations are in the early testing and reconnaissance stages.

The apparent slow pace of gains has raised questions, however. President Volodymyr Zelensky told the BBC on June 21 that progress on the battlefield had been "slower than desired."

"Some people believe this is a Hollywood movie and expect results now. It's not," Zelensky added. "What's at stake is people's lives."

Western analysts are still consistently reporting Ukrainian advances along the front lines. Kyiv's forces carried out counteroffensive operations "on at least four sectors of the front" on Tuesday, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in Washington.

In his nightly address on Monday, Zelensky said Ukrainian fighters had "advanced in all directions."

A former commander of U.S. Army Europe, retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, told Newsweek on June 23: "Ninety percent of the Ukrainian army is not even in the fight yet.

"When you see all that, then it's on," he added. "Right now, a very, very small part of the army is even in the fight."

Ukrainian troops are continuing to plug away at the Kremlin's positions in Bakhmut, Ukraine's military said on Wednesday morning.

"The Russian occupation forces are putting up strong resistance. At the same time, the enemy will suffer significant losses in personnel, weapons and equipment," said General Staff spokesperson Andriy Kovalev in a statement posted on social media.

Bakhmut, which has seen months of bitter fighting, has now been largely destroyed. Labelled a "meat grinder," the Donetsk city has more symbolic value than strategic weight for whichever side can capture it.

In Bakhmut and elsewhere, both Ukrainian and Russian forces are thought to be suffering heavy losses of personnel and equipment.

"As part of its broader counteroffensive, Ukraine has gained impetus in its assaults around Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast," the British Ministry of Defense said in its daily intelligence update on Monday. Ukrainian forces have "made progress" on Bakhmut's northern and southern flanks, it added.

Hanna Maliar, Kyiv's deputy defense minister, said in a statement posted to Telegram: "Our defenders advance on the flanks every day." She added that, as of Tuesday, Ukraine had not entered the city itself.

"The defense forces advance near Bakhmut and knock the Russians out of their positions," the commander of Ukraine's ground forces, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said on Tuesday.